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INDIAN MEMORIES 

RECOLLECTIONS OF 
SOLDIERING SPORT, ETC. 






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THE END OF THE NIGHT WATCH — FOR BEARS 



INDIAN 
MEMORIES 

RECOLLECTIONS OF SOLDIERING, 
SPORT, ETC., BY LIEUT.-GENERAL 
SIR ROBERT BADEN-POWELL K.C.B. 
WITH 24 ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR 
<& AND 100 IN BLACK & WHITE $ 
ffi m BY THE AUTHOR © <B 




HERBERT JENKINS LIMITED 
12 ARUNDEL PLACE HAYMARKET 
LONDON S.W. SB <8> MCMXV 



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THE ANCHOE PBESS, LTD., T1PTRFE, ESSEX. 



TO 

THE MEMORY OF 

MY MOTHER 

WHO THOUGHT MY LETTERS 
WORTH KEEPING 



FOREWORD 

PERHAPS the only redeeming point about these 
" Memories " is that they are largely ex- 
tracted from diaries and letters which were 
not written with the idea of anyone ever seeing them 
except my mother. To some extent they tell 
directly against me, since they show me to have been 
just the ordinary silly young ass who enjoyed sense- 
less ragging, was fond of dogs and horses, and 
thought very little as he went through the ordinary 
every-day experiences of a subaltern in India. 
There is nothing very romantic or very exciting 
about them, and there is much that is silly, but at 
the same time such things have, I think, seldom been 
set down in writing just as they occurred to one at 
the time. They may at any rate serve to remind 
other old officers besides myself that they themselves 
once felt and did as subalterns now think and do. 
As we get into our crabbed old age, we are apt to 
forget that we were once youngsters, as I had almost 
forgotten that I once enjoyed having " all my 
face except a small patch on the left side scraped 
bare in a glorious rough and tumble." 



viii FOREWORD 

With very few exceptions the illustrations are 
reproductions of sketches which I sent home to 
show what India was like, and they have the virtue 
of being done on the spot. 

These Reminiscences were in print in July 1914, 
but their publication was deferred owing to the out- 
break of war. The results of the campaign to date 
in no way modify the opinions therein expressed on 
the character and training of the British officer and 

soldier of to-day. 

Robert Baden-Powell. 
Ewhurst, 
East Sussex. 




CONTENTS 



PAGE 

FOREWORD - vii 

CHAPTER I 

I ENTER THE ARMY 

My First Lesson in Tactics — Dr. Haig-Brown and the Flank Attack — 
Oxford Declines Me — My Surprise Pass — I Embark for India — 
" Pandemonium " — A Bay of Biscay Storm — An Embarrassing 
Episode — The Missing Lieutenant — A Sea Tragedy — Port Said — 
A Wonderful Telescope — " Man Overboard " — A Confused i 
Sentry 

CHAPTER II 

ARRIVAL IN INDIA 

The Odour of India — The Heat Overcomes Our Vanity — Jubbulpore 
and the Bees — Lucknow — Signs of Tragedy — Engaging Servants 
— Kicking Out the Overplus — A Subaltern on Natives — Inmates 
of My Garden — Crib Fights a Jackal — A Confidential Document 
— A Disaster — The General and My Caricatures — A Cure for 
Fever — Sir Baker Russell — Riding Down a Delinquent — A 
Mishap — An Unorthodox Colonel — Then and Now — Cultivating 
Intelligence ----------13 

CHAPTER III 

THE SPORT OF KINGS AND THE KING OF SPORTS 

The Shaping of the Subaltern — Polo Fever — The Keenness of the 
Ponies — A Savage Contestant — A Filial Subaltern — A Polo Ban- 
quet — Mr. Winston Churchill's Remarkable Speech — Winston 
a Prisoner for the First Time — " I am India-rubber " — The 
Pursuit of the Pig — The Attractions of India — A Born Sportsman 
— A Splendid Sport — A Brutal Father — A Boar Puts a Gun out 
of Acton — Tiger and Boar — Sir Samuel Baker's Experience — 
Tommy Atkins After Pig ---.---30 

CHAPTER IV 

THE KING OF THE JUNGLE 

The Boar's Quickness — His Tushes — A Remarkable Courage — The 
Duke of Connaught's Adventure — An Enthusiastic Ally — My 
First Adventure with Pig — A Humiliating Discovery — A 
Typical Run — The Kadir Cup Won for Me — The Pinner Pinned 
— A Lucky Misadventure — Pigsticking on Foot 52 



x CONTENTS 

CHAPTER V 

LIFE IN THE PLAINS 

A Soldier's Holiday — The Tragedy of My Lunch — Summary Ven- 
geance — The Forgotten Sentry — The Death of Jock — An Unlucky 
Day — The Land of Practical Jokes — Milk for Rosie — The Call of 
Christmas — Sir Baker Russell and the Mules — The Duke of 
Connaught in India — His First Pigsticking Adventure — Swim- 
ming Rivers — A Dodge to Obtain Prestige — The German 
Emperor Amused — No Rations in Eternity — Our Methods in 
India — The Joys of the Cavalry Brigadier — A Lost Station — I 
Disturb the Colonel — Snipe and Gin — Lemon Pudding and 
Mustard — A Stolen Bicycle — Wunhi's Tea-House — Regimental 
Friendships ---------- 70 

CHAPTER VI 

DISEASE AND THE DRAMA 

The Scourge of India — A Sergeant Orders His Own Funeral — The 
Tragedy of the Ball — A Brave Doctor — An Erratic Visitant — 
The Tragic Drama — The Adjutant's First Question — Scene- 
Painting Extraordinary — The Simla Theatre — Strenuous Rehear- 
sals — Pantomime at 100 Degrees — On Tour — Overlooking the 
Viceroy — " Do Your Blacks Run ? " — The Criterion at Quetta — 
A Laughing Dialogue — Asleep on the Stage — An Embarrassing 
Greeting — The Question of Health — Some Bacteriological 
Observations — Sir Baker and the Doctor — An Explosion — A 
Solomon in Judgment — The Regimental Doctor 90 

CHAPTER VII 
HOW INDIA DEVELOPS CHARACTER 

Killing Ennui — Tommy Atkins as a Sportsman — Spies in Disguise 
— A Sham Fight — The Perfect Soldier — Learning to Observe — 
Night Operations — The Man who Made Grimaces — The Modern 
Training — Interesting the Men — Sir Bindon Blood's Views on 
Cavalry — An Irate General — The Woman Abroad — The Scout 
Mistress — The Rani's Answer — A Fearless Rani — Colonel Alex- 
ander Gardner — His Romance — A Tragedy - - - - 106 

CHAPTER VIII 
WHEN THE TRIBES ARE OUT 

The Afghan War — The Great March — Ordered up to Kandahar — A 
Warlike Atmosphere — The Expedition of 1842 — The Camel and 
His Ways — Kandahar — A Dangerous City — Theatricals under 
Difficulties — A Serious Mistake — Afghan Nerve — Attacked by 
Ghazis — The Crack of Doom — The Field of Maiwand — A Broken 
Square — A Heroic Chaplain — A Narrow Escape - - - 123 

CHAPTER IX 
THE AFTERMATH OF WAR 

The Image of War — Patrols and Picnics — A Curious Superstition — 
Jock Fights a Wild Cat — Afghan Depredations — Relics of 



CONTENTS xi 

Alexander the Great — Camp Rumours — Abdurrahman Waits — 
The Horses Stampede — A Subaltern's Opinion of the Government 
— A Study in Contrasts — Rifle Stealing — An Ingenious Plan — 
Further Losses — I Shoot Myself — I Hear my Death Announced — 
Digging for the Bullet — Convalescence — Stalked by a Leopard — 
A Rough and Tumble __,._---- 139 

CHAPTER X 

LIFE IN THE HILLS 

Civilisation v. Vagabondage — My First Meeting with Lord Roberts — 
His Advice — Sir George White's Unconventionality — Disguised 
as War Correspondents — We are Sumptuously Entertained — We 
are Discovered — A Hasty Trip to Simla — Ragging — An Enthusi- 
astic Fire Brigade — My Death is Announced — " The Bounding 
Brothers of the Bosphorus " — A Mess-Room as Sheepfold — 
" Ding " McDougal, Practical Joker — I Flee from Society — And 
Do Not Regret It — A Novel Umbrella — The Drawbacks of 
Education — My Post Bag - - - - - - -161 

CHAPTER XI 

" TIGER, TIGER, BURNING BRIGHT " 

A Possible Interrogation — I Go in Pursuit of Tigers — Smith- 
Dorrien at Work — The Party Meets — The Old Hands — A Native 
Weakness — How to Beat for Tigers — A Dead Enemy — A Native 
Village — Nearly a Fatality — Camp Literature — I Become Doctor 
— I Get a Bear — Camp Life — A Panther's Wings — The Mahout — 
The Tables Turned — Table Delicacies — Jungle Yachts — The 
End of the Ghost --. 181 

CHAPTER XII 

A FRONTIER ROW 

The Value of the North- West Frontier — Village Warfare — Readiness 
and Efficiency — How an Irishman Got a Dog and a Breakfast 
for Nothing — Trouble in the Buner Country — The Subaltern in 
War-time — The Pessimistic Afridi — A Terrified Jehu — Sniping 
— The Morning of the Fight — Sir Bindon's Dispositions — The 
Artillery Triumphs — Touching the Button — Rock-rolling — An 
Exciting Race — The Bravest Man I ever Saw — The Enemy in 
Retreat — An Exhausting Climb — The Tribute of a Foe — The 
Trophies of War — Our Casualties ------ 205 

CHAPTER XIII 

THE JUNGLE PEOPLE AND SOME OTHERS 

Curious Playmates — The Tragic Story of Algernon — Snakes and 
Their Ways — An Unpleasant Bedfellow — An Ungrateful Patient 
— Some Good Friends — The Clown's Mishap — A Murderer — A 
Curious Trait — Bucephalus — A New Use For a Melon Bed — A 
Horse for a Lady — The Soul of the Camel — The Bullock's Quest 
— Buckhunting with Cheetahs — Black Buck Shooting — The 
Panther's Ruse — The Moses of the Jungle — A Sprightly Com- 
panion — A Panther in Search of His Tail — The Trial that Failed 224 



xii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XIV 

"THE ELEPHANT'S A GENTLEMAN" 

My Sentiment About the Elephant — His Mathematical Mind- 
Dandelion's Idiosyncrasies — Her Courage in the Face of an 
Enemy — The Elephant who Died — A Problem in Sanitation — 
The Jungle Ship — Sea Legs — The Genius of the Elephant — His 
Timidity — Jock's Victory — The Duchess of Connaught's Adven- 
ture — The Elephant's Caution — He Utilises Human Material — A 
Malefactor Flogged by Elephants — The Elephant in War — An 
Elephant Fight --------- 245 

CHAPTER XV 

NATIVE HOSPITALITY AND TRADITIONS 

The Interest of the Native — Animal Fights — A Game Country — A 
Puzzled Sportsman — An Up-to-Date Rajah — Impressing the 
Shopkeeper — The Indian Nautch Dance — A Dreary Perform- 
ance — Thomas Atkins, Linguist — An Interrupted Picnic — 
The Lord of the Land Objects — His Sportsmanship — A Shoot- 
ing Competition — Alexander the Great — The Tradition Con- 
cerning His Invasion — His Dying Requests — Swordsmanship — 
The Native During Manoeuvres — Too Eager — The Ghoorka's 
Anger — Unofficial Weapons — An Antiquated Transport — The 
Sporting Beluchis — Regimental Feuds — An Unexpected Cavalry 
Charge — Clever Jackal-Calling — Pirates — Native Servants — The 
Detection of Crime - - - - - - - - -257 

CHAPTER XVI 

THE CALL OF KASHMIR 

A Strange Disease and Its Cure — Roughing It in Luxury — My Outfit 
— My Views on the Tonga — The Blasted Way — Crazy Bridges — 
Prince Louis' Double — The Great Unwashed — My Fleet 
Weighs Anchor — Spearing Fish — Srinagar — Something about 
Kashmir — Kashapa and the Devil — Itinerant Tradesmen — A 
Clever Dealer — I Fall — The Ruins at Pandritan — A People 
Without a Conscience — The Boatwomen — An Interrupted 
Sermon — The Ubiquitous Tourist — My Entourage — Essential 
Qualities in a Wife — How the Day Begins — Jack's Way with 
Natives — A Chance of Bears - - - - - • - - 288 

CHAPTER XVII 
A HUNTER AS PANEL DOCTOR 

The Lunghi Valley — Omar by the Camp Fire — Philosophic Carriers 
— The Efficacy of Castor Oil — A Good Camping Rule — A Bear 
at Last — A Mud Slide — An Excellent Fellow — A Test of Eye- 
sight — The Man with the Funny Face — I Indiscreetly Heal the 
Sick — I Become Famous — A Jungle Doctor — My Practice In- 
creases — A Question of Date — How I got the News of Omdurman 
— My Appetite — A New Use for Oil Tins — A Courteous Governor 
—The End of the Trip— The Balance Sheet - - - - 316 

APOLOGIA 352 

INDEX - - 353 



COLOURED PLATES 

TO FACE PAGE 

The end of the night-watch — for Bears . . . . Frontispiece 

Some types . 18 

How I ate my Christmas dinner with my regiment, and the con- 
veyances that took me there and back — 

i. Departing in style 
ii. Travelling modestly | 

iii. Arriving in humility L .... 76 
iv. Sleeping under difficulties l 

v. Returning like a zoological specimen ' 

A Hindu Temple 120 

A sunset impression, Kashmir 162 

Gateway of the Fort, Patiala 206 

Buck-hunting with a cheetah 236 

The genius of the elephant in overcoming difficulties . * . 248 

Our prehistoric transport 278 

My tent, looking from the breakfast table towards the Liddar. 

James going to get more stewed peaches . . . .294 

My Doonga 294 

Fort Hari Parbat, Srinagar 296 

Dais Village 296 

The Ruins of Pandritan (the little temple in the yellow tank). Date 

about 500 to 800 a.d 304 

The entrance to the Liddar Valley, looking north. The red line 

shows my track 308 

The Liddar Valley, my outfit passing some gipsy drovers . . 311 

Sir Henry Irving in disguise looking for throats to cut . . 312 

The post office and club at Achibal 334 

My beaters at lunch 334 



BLACK AND WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 

Tailpiece ........... 1. 

Title-page iii. 

Kashmir girl viii. 

A perilous descent .......... xvii. 

Tailpiece ........... xix. 

Dr. Haig-Brown, strategist ........ 2 

The night of the storm . . . . . . . . . 7 

The bewildered sentry . . . . . . . . . n 

Tailpiece . . . . . . . . . . 12 

An undignified entry 14 

The retirement of the unsuccessful , . . . . . 16 

Crib's victory ' . . . . . 19 

Riding down a delinquent . . . . •■ ' . . . 24 

Joseph Chamberlain and the policeman . . . . . 29 

A race for first spear ......... 37 

Knocked out .......... 45 

It took half an hour to kill him ....... 47 

" Oh lor ! what's this ?"........ 51 

The man seized the boar's lower jaw with both hands ... 53 

I looked a funny object ........ 64 

I lay on my back, still clutching the spear . . . . 68 

Swimming horses . . ~ . . . . . . . 79 

My tea-house sign 87 

Tailpiece ........... 89 

Tosser and Pitcher in The Area Belle . ■ . . . . - . 97 

The disregarded cue . . . . . - , . . . g8 

" Hullo, Private Willis !"....". . . 99 



Comrades 



105 



Our plan of attack ... ..... 112 

Tailpiece ........... 122 

Sketch map of the Afghanistan campaign 125 

Plan of the Battle of Maiwand . . . . • . - 135 

" You've broke my toe, you b iron-gutted beggar " . . 138 

" If anybody ever talks to me again about the honour and glory of 

soldiering, I'll be b y rude to him." .... 141 

xv 



xvi BLACK AND WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS 



One of our sentries 

An Afghan sentry 

Jack thinks it's dinner time 

Sheep-stealing by officers 

My walking-kit 

The local umbrella 

The metamorphosis of the wanderer 

Tailpiece .... 

Bala Khan directing operations 

A bird's-eye view of a tiger beat 

Bagging a panther 

Dandelion was as firm as a rock 

The spoil .... 

Smelling out a tiger's wing-bone 

Me! 

My Mahout, Kumala Din 

Hunting the hunter 

With a whisk of his tail he disappeared 

A Buner standard-bearer 

The bravest man I ever saw 

The 5th Bengal cavalry 

Mare baiting : Algernon's fun 

" A fizzer under a saddle " 

The cheetah's approach 

In full cry .... 

An unrehearsed effect 

The panther who reasoned 

The triumph of mind over matter 

The elephant fight 

Tailpiece .... 

The officers who met us 

Our host the Maharajah 

A good sportsman 

A realistic sham fight 

A Ghoorka out for blood 

The excitement of manoeuvres 

A regiment of inveterate sportsmen 

Native officers in plain clothes 

Native football 

Kashmir carriers 

The Kashmir girl does her hair in plaits 

Baramoola 

My doonga 

Spearing fish . 

Kashmir children 



BLACK AND WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS xvii 



One way of travelling in Kashmir 

A Kashmir spade ........ 

My household goods on the move ..... 

The natives have eyes in their knees when Jack is about 
Samud Khan, my shikari ...... 

A tonga . . . . . 

How they frighten birds in Kashmir .... 

Beaters going home, as their chaplis render them useless on slippery 

country . 

Going up is simple enough, but the real difficulty lies in coming down 
The making of a calf ..... 

A difference of opinion as to a right of way 

The work of a " stop " in a bear-drive in four acts 

Unintentional tobogganning 

Sabhana, our guide 

The bear charges the beaters 

Got him at last 

Our pack of bear-hounds ! 

Went away smiling 

Spearing a fish 

The chief imports of Kashmir 

Tailpiece 



PAGE 
303 

3°5 
309 
312 
314 
315 

318 

320 
322 
325 

326 

327 
328 

331 
332 
338 
341 

343 
345 
35o 
35? 




INDIAN MEMORIES 

RECOLLECTIONS OF 
SOLDIERING SPORT, ETC. 




CHAPTER I 



I ENTER THE ARMY 



My First Lesson in Tactics— Dr. Haig-Brown and the 
Flank Attack— Oxford Declines Me— My Surprise Pass 
— I Embark for India — " Pandemonium " — A Bay of 
Biscay Storm— An Embarrassing Episode— The Missing 
Lieutenant— A Sea Tragedy— Port Said— A Wonderful 
Telescope— " Man Overboard "—A Confused Sentry 

MY first lesson in tactics was learned under 
the direction of that famous old trainer 
of boys, Dr. Haig-Brown, at the old 
Charterhouse in London. The fight between the 
butcher boys of the neighbouring Smithfield Market 
and the boys of Charterhouse had become a standing 
institution, and very often these battles raged for 
days together. On this particular occasion the 
Smithfield boys had taken possession of a waste 
piece of ground, " Over Hoardings," adjoining our 
football ground, from which they attacked us with 
showers of stones and brickbats whenever we 
attempted to play. This was responded to from our 
side in like manner, with occasional sorties by strong 
bodies of us over the wall. With four or five other 
boys too small to take part in the actual fray, I was 
looking on at the battle when we suddenly found the 
headmaster alongside us, anxiously watching the 
progress of the fight. He remarked to us : 

" I think if you boys went through that door in the 
side wall you might attack the cads in flank." 



2 I ENTER THE ARMY 

" Yes, sir," one of us replied, " but the door is 
locked." 

The worthy Doctor fumbled in his gown and 
said : " That is so, but here is the key " : and he 
sent us on our way rejoicing, and our attack was a 
complete success. 

It was thirty years later that I referred to this 
incident at a dinner given me by my old schoolfellows 
after the South African War, at which the Doctor 





0- ©"■:■ ' >V"»." 





Dr. Haig-Brown, strategist. 

himself was present. He then corroborated my 
story and went further by reminding us of the names 
of the other boys who formed the flank attacking 
party. 

It was on the occasion of this battle that the 
Doctor gave one of his characteristic replies. An 
enraged citizen came to him and complained that 
when he was harmlessly riding past the scene of the 
encounter on the top of an omnibus, one of his eyes 
had been nearly knocked out by a stone. The Doctor 
expressed his regret for the untoward incident, but 
assured the man that he was very lucky not to have 



AN ASTONISHING RESULT 3 

lost both his eyes if he was so regardless of his safety 
as to ride on an omnibus when a battle was going on 
between the boys of the Charterhouse and the 
butcher lads of Smithfield. 

From Charterhouse I went up to Oxford, but my 
learning was apparently not considered of sufficient 
merit to admit me to Balliol or Christchurch, where I 
desired to go. The author of Alice in Wonderland 
was my examiner in mathematics, and he found out 
what I could already have told him, but what I 
hoped he would not discover for himself, that it was 
a subject about which I knew little or nothing. 
I had a vague hope that my father's reputation as 
Savilian professor of geometry might carry me 
through that gate to the University. But my hopes 
were vain and I had for the time to take up my 
position as an unattached member. 

Within a few days of my joining I went up for the 
Army examination to test my possibilities in that 
line, but without any special hope of passing in my 
first attempt. A few weeks later I happened to be 
on Dr. Acland's yacht in the Solent, on which also 
was Dean Liddell of Christchurch. On reading his 
morning paper he remarked to me that in the list of 
those who had passed for the Army he noticed one of 
my name, and to my astonishment I found that I had 
passed, and not only passed but that I was very 
near the top of the list. I had gone in for both 
examinations, for cavalry and for infantry, and I had 
come out unaccountably high up in each. I did 
not know then, and I have not been able since to 
imagine how this came about. I can only suppose 
that the examiners must have misread my examina- 
tion index-number, and that some other clever 



4 I ENTER THE ARMY 

young fellow is now eking out a precarious existence 
as an author or a play-actor, who ought really to have 
been in the position occupied by myself. But such 
is life, and I do not regret it. 

Successful candidates were all drafted to Sand- 
hurst for a two years' course of instruction before 
actually joining the Army, but by some strange luck 
the first six were excused this preliminary and were 
at once gazetted to regiments. Thus, although I 
left Charterhouse only in June, I had my commission 
in September and was in India, a full-blown officer 
of the 13th Hussars, in November. That was where 
my luck in promotion began, and it never deserted 
me in any single step in rank during the rest of my 
service. 

During the South African campaign a well-known 
General gave it as his opinion, in terms more forcible 
than polite, that the rising generation ought to be 
provided by Nature with velvet cushions to sit upon. 
He had gone through rougher times as a subaltern 
than falls to the lot of many young officers nowa- 
days. The incidents of my first voyage to India, even 
though it seems but a year or two ago, remind me 
that times have indeed changed. The old Serapis, 
which we considered a magnificent ship in her day, 
was under 5,000 tons in size and fitted with masts and 
sails to help her little engines push her along, her 
speed averaging about nine knots. 

We left Queenstown on November 3, 1876. My 
quarters were in a kind of den below the water-line 
along the keel of the ship and close to the rudder 
and screw ; it was called " Pandemonium " because 
it was a deep, dark, underground place, and from 
want of ventilation almost as stuffy and hot as its 



PANDEMONIUM 5 

namesake. Here we were jammed together in small 
compartments holding three or four apiece ; but so 
unpleasant was it that the merciful authorities 
allowed us to sleep on the stairs or in the passages, 
wherever we liked, in fact. Often during the night 
we would be roused by the ship's officers and master- 
at-arms, etc., going their rounds, to enquire why we 
were sleeping there. If the answer was " Pande- 
monium," the reason was considered sufficient and 
nothing further was said, otherwise such sleepers-out 
would be ordered back to their cabins. 

We did not, however, make ourselves miserable 
about our surroundings and, using " Pandemonium " 
merely as a store-room and place of refuge in the 
event of an attack by stronger forces, we would 
raid the happier mortals who lived on the decks above 
in comparative comfort in the "horse-boxes," as 
the cabins were called. 

The Serapis had hardly entered the Bay of Biscay 
when we came in for a tremendous westerly gale. 
Having always heard of the terrors of the Bay we 
expected it as a necessary evil in crossing that well- 
known part of the ocean, and treated it as part of the 
day's work. Having crossed it over twenty times 
since then, I now realise that it was quite an excep- 
tional storm. In those days it was a three or four 
days' steaming to cross the Bay, and on this occasion 
it was prolonged by heavy labouring of the vessel, 
which finally resulted in our having to heave to for 
half a day owing to the heavy seas. These had 
stove in two boats on the davits and carried away the 
ladders leading from the upper deck into the waist. 

The crew of a troopship was then a very small one, 
because each blue- jacket was backed by half a dozen 



6 I ENTER THE ARMY 

soldiers to help him in his various duties ; but, as 
might have been expected, on this occasion, when 
their help was most needed, all the soldiers were more 
or less helpless with sea-sickness, and consequently 
the sailors were considerably overworked. At one 
period of the gale our bowsprit was ducked under and 
snapped off, but hung there by its shrouds banging 
against the stem of the vessel. A number of men 
went out into the netting to get in the wreckage, when 
another sea came up and lifted them all from their 
perch and hurled them back on to the fo'c's'le, where 
they were all more or less damaged but fortunately 
not carried away into the sea. 

From early training and knocking about in small 
boats at sea I was a pretty good sailor, so I took 
matters easily and wedged myself in between the 
mast and a table in the saloon in a comfortable 
armchair, and did myself well with a good novel, 
undisturbed by the creaking of the ship and the 
groanings in the cabins around me. In the ladies' 
cabin, where a number of the officers' wives had their 
sleeping places, the chaplain of the ship was endea- 
vouring to comfort some of the more nervous passen- 
gers. In the midst of his ministrations an extra 
lurch of the ship flung open the doors of the side- 
board in the dining saloon and a regular avalanche of 
metal dish covers and side dishes came crashing and 
clattering into the saloon. Part of the same sea struck 
the skylight on deck and smashed in some of the glass, 
producing a downpour of water which somewhat 
flooded the place. The ladies took the whole 
contretemps as a sign that the end was come and, 
bursting out of their cabins in all states of deshabille, 
they came crying out for help and comfort. One of 



AN EMBARRASSING SITUATION 7 

them rushed to me, asking if there was any danger, 
and I said, " Certainly not, if you sit in this chair and 
read this excellent book," handing her my novel. It 
certainly comforted her, but I regretted my self- 
sacrifice afterwards, as I was not able to find an 




The night of the storm. 

equally comfortable place nor another book, and the 
lady rather cut me for the rest of the voyage out, 
through shame for her exhibition of weakness. So I 
failed to score all round ! 

We were glad to get out of that gale into the 
calmer Mediterranean, and when we arrived at 
Malta we had to leave some twenty blue-jackets 
behind, to recover from their various injuries, frac- 
tures, and contusions, and to ship others in their places. 



8 I ENTER THE ARMY 

Like details of a dream the incidents of an ordinary 
voyage are of very little interest to outsiders, but 
that they were important to oneself is shown by the 
fact that I recorded them carefully in my diary or 
letters home, and though they hardly redound to 
my credit, they at any rate shed a light on the irre- 
sponsible nature of the human beast at the age of 
eighteen. For instance : " I spent last night in attend- 
ing on officers who slept in hammocks, swinging them 
until they were sea-sick." 

When we were ready to weigh anchor at Suez, 
where we called for letters, one of the naval lieuten- 
ants was missing and it was found that he had gone 
ashore with a lot of other officers but had not returned 
with them. Some people got anxious, because, not 
so very long before, an officer of the 12th Lancers 
was murdered here by the natives on the quay. 
However, by looking through telescopes we presently 
saw him in a sailing boat with two natives, and he was 
rowing ; so we waited for about an hour until he got 
alongside. The boatmen had started from the shore 
in good time to catch the ship, but having come a 
quarter of the journey they refused to go any further 
without extra pay, and kept stopping and demanding 
more money. However, at last we got him on board, 
and while he was down in his cabin getting money to 
pay the men the ship started and left them without 
anything. 

Port Said struck me as a most wretched, stinking, 
filthy, picturesque, sandy place. All the people 
looked just like those in pictures of Egypt — 
Europeans, Turks, Nubians, and Egyptian officials 
being all jumbled up together. There was nothing 
to do on shore except to go and look at the roulette 



AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 9 

tables, of which there are two or three in the town. I 
found the way to win money was to back the colour 
which was going to lose the smallest sum for the bank. 
By some wonderful coincidence the wheel always 
stopped in favour of the bank and in that way one 
picked up a few francs, but it was not very exciting. 
I enjoyed watching the people outside more than the 
play inside the shanties. 

In the Red Sea we had it awfully warm for three 
days, the thermometer registering 96 at dinner ; this 
in damp air is equal to ten degrees higher in a dry 
climate. Four or five children died and several 
ladies were ill, continually fainting. Worst of all, all 
the cooks got so ill that they had to go into hospital ; 
one of them went mad, jumped overboard and was 
never seen again. The soldiers then took charge of 
the cooking under the direction of a steward, and the 
feeding was not exactly luxurious in consequence. 
" Pandemonium " was unbearable at night, but a lot 
of us made our sleeping places in the stern-windows of 
the main deck. The iron ports of these windows were 
let down until they hung out horizontally from the 
ship's side with chains to support them. The win- 
dows were all close together, with only six or eight 
inches between, so that some fellows put their mat- 
tresses out across the ports and lay in the cool outside 
the ship. There was some little risk , for, if you were a 
restless sleeper, you might roll off your bed and over- 
board, and this actually happened to an officer of the 
109th Regiment, whose mattress was found in the 
morning doubled down in the centre and empty, and 
the regiment had lost the number of its mess. 

One morning we sighted a steamer on the horizon 
astern of us, and through my glass I saw she had a 



io I ENTER THE ARMY 

blue funnel. Now, just as we left Suez three days 
before I had noticed this steamer with the blue funnel 
just coming out of the Canal and taking up an 
anchorage in Suez Bay, and I noticed that her name 
was the Diomed. On seeing her funnel appear over 
the horizon I knew what her name must be, though 
she was yet too far off for it to be read. So I 
went up to a fellow who was very proud of his 
telescope and considered mine very much inferior to 
his, and challenged him to read her name at that 
distance. He confessed he could not . I spelt it out 
letter by letter and told him it was the Diomed, and 
when she came up with us he saw with his own eyes 
that it was so. This took him down a peg. 

One roaring hot day, as I was sitting on deck trying 
to get cool, the bo'sun came rushing up singing out : 
" Man overboard ! " There was an instantaneous 
waking-up of everybody on deck. I looked at the 
sentry guarding the lifebuoy, and saw him merely 
leaning on the rail looking down at the water in a very 
calm sort of way, so I went up to him and told him to 
let go the lifebuoy, but he said he had already done 
so, and there it was about one hundred yards away, 
but no one near. We looked in every direction for 
the drowning man, but could not see him. Then a 
lifeboat suddenly made its appearance, rowing as 
hard as anything. The engines were sent full speed 
astern, but the ship had got such an impetus on that 
she did not stop for two minutes forty-five seconds. 
The lifeboat was in the water fully manned in one 
minute forty-five seconds from the alarm being given. 
The lifeboat rowed to the buoy and then started 
rowing round looking for the man. However, a 
signal was run up telling them to come back to the 



VAGUE, BUT WELL-INTENTIONED n 

ship, and then we knew that there was not actually a 
man overboard. The alarm was only given for 
practice. The boat picked up the buoy, brought it 
alongside and was hoisted up on the davits in 
exactly fifteen minutes from the first alarm. The fun 
was that directly the alarm was given several of the 
officers sitting about the deck had their coats off and 




The bewildered sentry. 

were up on the rail only waiting to see where the man 
was to jump in. 

In this age of hurry, where ships keep time as 
railway trains are supposed to do, they lower the 
boats only in harbour or in rivers, and thereby lose 
the efficiency acquired by practice at sea. The 
ways of the sea are a closed book to the average 
landsman and apt to confuse his mind. The sentry 
placed over the life-buoy was a case in point. One 



12 I ENTER THE ARMY 

day the orderly officer asked him what he would do 
at the alarm being raised of " Man overboard." On 
one side of him was the life-buoy, on the other the 
dial recording the degree to which the ship rolled. 
The man, utterly fogged, and confusing it with the 
street fire-alarms at home, replied : " I breaks the 
glass and pulls the 'andle, sir ! " 




CHAPTER II 



ARRIVAL IN INDIA 



The Odour of India — The Heat Overcomes Our Vanity — 
Jubbulpore and the Bees — Lucknow — Signs of Tragedy 
— Engaging Servants — Kicking out the Overplus — A 
Subaltern on Natives — Inmates of My Garden — Crib 
Fights a Jackal — A Confidential Document — A Disaster 
— The Genera] and My Caricatures — A Cure for Fever 
— Sir Baker Russell — Riding Down a Delinquent — A 
Mishap — An Unorthodox Colonel — Then and Now — 
Cultivating Intelligence 

I CAN remember to this day the smell of India 
which assailed our nostrils before we had set 
foot ashore at the Apollo Bunder, and, though 
it is very many years ago, I can well remember the 
bother which my companion and I had in getting our 
baggage safely ashore, loaded on to a bullock-wagon 
and conveyed from the docks to Watson's Hotel. 
We had donned our best uniforms and were not a 
little proud of ourselves in the early part of the day ; 
but as hour followed hour in that soggy heat we 
seemed to melt into the thick tight-bound cloth, and 
we wished we had something more seasonable to wear. 
By nightfall we were dog tired and our pride had all 
leaked out, and under the cover of darkness we 
willingly climbed up on to the pile of baggage on our 
bullock-cart and allowed ourselves to be ignomin- 
iously carried through the back streets of Bombay to 
the great hotel. 

13 



14 ARRIVAL IN INDIA 

Then followed a long journey by train up country 
via Jubbulpore to Lucknow, where the regiment was 
stationed. In Jubbulpore we stopped the night at 
the Dak Bungalow, a small, bare, scantily furnished 
rest-house where you could get a meagre meal and 




An undignified entry. 

bad accommodation. Twenty years had elapsed 
since the Mutiny, but our knowledge of India was 
chiefly derived from reading accounts of that 
episode, and therefore when left alone for the night 
in this empty-looking house, with doors and windows 
open to the night, we naturally imagined the possi- 
bility of having our throats cut at any moment, and 



A CHOICE OF EVILS 15 

therefore we slept with our pistols handy, when, as a 
matter of fact, we were as safe as if we had been in a 
hotel in London ; but it added a touch of romance to 
our journey, and every minor experience was to us of 
great moment at that time. 

The Marble Rocks at Jubbulpore were the great 
sight of the place. They were rocky cliffs standing up 
out of a lake where boating parties could go for 
picnics to observe their beauty ; but we were warned 
against the danger of approaching too close to the 
cliffs, as a tragedy had occurred there shortly before, 
due to the bees that build their nests in the crevices 
of the rocks. A swarm of these had attacked some 
sight-seers in a body, and they had to dive overboard 
in order to escape them. The bees appeared to 
follow one man and kept so near to him that, when- 
ever he put his head above the surface, they went for 
him, and he was eventually drowned in his efforts to 
escape them. 

Lucknow still showed the marks of the Mutiny of 
twenty years before. The palace at Dilkoosha near 
the cantonments, and the Residency in Lucknow 
itself still stood in ruins as they were left after the 
fight, knocked to pieces by shell fire, and thickly 
pitted with bullet marks. Naturally they were of 
intense interest to us as visible reminders of the 
struggle which had taken place for the maintenance 
of British supremacy in India. 

My first night at Lucknow was spent at the hotel, 
for we arrived about eleven p.m. and were told that 
the cantonments were five miles away. Next morn- 
ing we started off and found the mess and the 
adjutant's house, but everybody was out. Later we 
met the adjutant riding along the road. It was odd 



16 ARRIVAL IN INDIA 

to see a fellow and his horse all decked out in the 
things I knew so well by sight but whose fitting-on 
I did not understand. He soon showed us an un- 
occupied bungalow. We sent a bullock-cart to fetch 
our luggage from the station and returned to the 
hotel for our light luggage. When we returned to 
the bungalow we found it filled with natives ; we 
thought at first they meant to stop us from [entering, 
but we found they were servants in want of places. 
One little man came up to me and said that he was 




The retirement of the unsuccessful. 

Wilson's late bearer, so I took his letters of recom- 
mendation and found a good one from Wilson, one 
from General Havelock's aide-de-camp saying he had 
been Havelock's bearer, and about fifty others. I 
engaged him and he immediately called to a lot of 
other niggers and said these were all my servants, 
handed me their characters and said I could turn 
away any I did not want. However, I kept the lot, 
and the moment I had engaged them they all set to 
work to kick out the crowds of unsuccessful candi- 
dates. By that evening all my boxes were unpacked 



FIRST IMPRESSIONS 17 

and a little furniture in the way of tables, chairs, 
bedstead, etc., were all in their places. 

My first impression of the natives does not seem 
to have been favourable. In a letter home, written 
soon after my arrival, I find the following passage : 
" I like my native servants, but as a rule the niggers 
seem to me cringing villains. As you ride or walk along 
the middle of the road, every cart or carriage has to 
stop ?nd get out of your way, and every native, as he 
passes you, gives a salute. If he has an umbrella up 
he takes it down, if he is riding a horse he gets off 
and salutes. Moreover they do whatever you tell 
them. If you meet a man in the road and tell him to 
dust your boots, he does it." 

It is very different nowadays, when the natives 
are put on a higher standing with the Europeans. In 
some quarters it is complained that they are allowed 
to become too familiar : in a native state under 
native rule they still carry out the practice of saluting 
their own rajahs and any white man who comes 
there, but in British India they now treat a white man 
merely as an equal. Theoretically this is as it should 
be, but practically, until they are fit to govern them- 
selves, it is a danger — to themselves. 

It is generally acknowledged that to be able to rule 
a man must first have learnt how to obey. In the 
training of the average Indian boy there is not as yet 
any discipline nor any attempt to inculcate in him 
a sense of honour, of fair play, of honesty, truth, and 
self discipline and other attributes which go to make 
a reliable man of character. 

Without a healthy foundation in these a scholastic 
education is apt to develop the microbe of priggish- 
ness, and swelled head. 



18 ARRIVAL IN INDIA 

I liked to sit in the verandah of my bungalow, 
watching all that went on in my garden. There was 
a squirrel just out in front, three of them had made 
their nests in the verandah roof ; a bulbul bird whose 
horn made him look as if his mouth were wide open ; 
then there was a hoopoe with his handsome crest who 
had a nest in the thatched roof of the house. There 
were also a crow and a hawk, always on the look-out 
to pick up something — you could not drop a piece of 
paper without one being there at once to take it. 
There was also a fly-catching bird, who looked some- 
thing like a big swallow. In the garden were five 
mongoose, living in different holes and corners. A 
great friend of mine was a cheeky little black and 
white robin. In the corners of the verandah were 
two doves' nests. There were a cheeky sort of bull- 
finch and a mina, a big kind of starling or blackbird. 
He is as common as a sparrow in India and full of 
jabber. There was also a little blue bird, like a 
humming-bird, who sat with his head turned up, 
chattering to himself all day, and a green parrot who 
came to steal the plums from our tree — he had to be 
shot. Finally there was a beastly old white hawk 
with a yellow bald head, in character much the same 
as the brown hawk. 

My captain had two dogs, and while he was away 
on leave I looked after them ; and when he came back 
he gave me one which he called " Child of the Arid 
Desert," so for short I called it " Crib." Then 
Mansell, a brother officer, gave me a very small puppy 
which I named " BoswelTs Life of Johnson," but it 
passed away in the innocency of childhood, for, eating 
too much at dinner one day, its stomach became too 
big, and so it died. Master Crib was a fine bull 






A POPPY AMONG CORNFLOWERS 






SOME TYPES 



CRIB 19 

terrier. One day he killed a jackal which was about 
four times his size and which fought desperately, but 
poor old Crib had to lie on my bed for two or three 
days afterwards, as every leg, as well as his tail, nose, 
etc., was in a sling. Crib was wonderfully active 
and killed any sparrows or rats that came into my 
room. He had a tremendous grip with his jaws, and 
he got hold of things in his mouth so well that you 
could carry him by them and swing him about all 
over^the place. It was a sight to see him in the 











Crib's victory. 



morning when I came out to mount preparatory to 
riding down to the school. He would run at me first 
and seize my toe in his mouth and shake it, and then 
run at the pony and mouth him too and lick his nose, 
and then run at the syce and lick his bare legs. 
Finally as soon as I was mounted, he would run up the 
steps and wait for me to call him, and then off we 
would all go as hard as we could to the riding school, 
where, directly I dismounted, he turned away and 
went straight off home again. 

Fortunately for me I did not join the regiment all 
alone, but had a companion tenderfoot with me, 
" Tommy " Dimond. We went through all our early 
miseries of riding-school, garrison class, elementary 
drills and first experiences together. These made a 



20 ARRIVAL IN INDIA 

strong tie of comradeship between us, which lasted 
for many years, until the dreaded scourge of cholera 
caught him. 

At Lucknow I had to make up for being excused 
from military training at Sandhurst by going through 
an eight months' course of garrison instruction. It 
might have been a dreary round of work had it not 
been that many of my fellow students were lads of 
cheerful character, and they considerably lightened 
the hours of study with a freshness which perhaps did 
not appeal quite so much to those charged with our 
education. If I can evade the law of libel by not 
mentioning names I should say that the present 
Director of the Territorial forces was the leading 
spirit in the lighter line taken in our course of work. 
He composed a most dramatic and very musical 
oratorio, which was performed by the whole class 
when we had had enough of a lecture. 

He also wrote a very fine book on the subject of the 
course generally, and of the different instructors in 
particular. It was a confidential document, only to 
be read by the students. He left spaces in which 
illustrations would come in to complete the essay, 
and sent the book to me to be completed in this way. 
After I had finished the illustrations, which were 
mostly somewhat exaggerated portraits of the differ- 
ent officials, not always quite complimentary to 
them or to their doings, I sent the volume back to him 
by the hands of a native messenger. As natives never 
grasp English names I merely told him to take it to 
the gentleman who lived in the red house — most of the 
houses in Lucknow were white. As it happened 
there were two red houses, a fact which I had for the 
moment forgotten, one of them where Bethune lived, 



THE CARICATURED GENERAL 21 

the other where our head-instructor lived. Naturally, 
according to the law of perversity, the native went to 
the wrong red house, and so the fat was in the fire, 
and next day a number of us were under arrest and 
haled before the General. Fortunately he was a man 
of some humour and we got off with a wigging. 

I afterwards found that I did not deserve to escape 
so lightly, for I had often drawn pictures of the 
General himself and thrown them away. But when 
I was leaving Lucknow a year or two later I went to 
pay my farewell call on him as in duty bound. He 
invited me into his sanctum and there produced a 
portfolio of, as it seemed to me, all the scraps and 
sketches I had ever drawn. He explained that the 
orderly whose duty it was to sweep up the lecture- 
room had orders always to save any pictures and to 
bring them to him for his collection. Although people 
had laughed at my caricatures no one laughed more 
heartily than the General himself, but he warned me 
that caricaturing was not always a safe game to play, 
and, acting on his advice, I have seldom indulged in it 
since ; for I know that most people, however large- 
minded and cheery they may be, are very liable to be 
hurt by even harmless little exaggerations of their 
failings. 

During my first year in India it seemed to me that 
I was being plugged full of medicine almost every day, 
sometimes for liver, sometimes for fever, and some- 
times for my inside. When I had fever I would 
proceed to treat it in a way that will make many 
smile. My way was at dinner to eat very little, 
drink some good champagne, and before going to bed 
to have for twenty minutes a boiling hot bath with a 
cold stream on one's head, then a dose of castor oil 



22 ARRIVAL IN INDIA 

and then to bed in flannel clothes. Next day I would 
lie down and take quinine and then the fever went. 
But my old liver hurt sometimes, especially after 
jogging about on duty or in the riding-school, and I 
became so wretchedly thin that I had to have my 
pantaloons taken in and I could put three fingers 
between my legs and my top boots, which once were 
quite tight. 

Sir Baker Russell, who was a Major in the 13th 
Hussars soon after I joined, and later became our 
Colonel, had made a great name for himself as a fight- 
ing man, both in the Mutiny, where he began as a Cor- 
net of the Carabineers, and afterwards in Canada, in 
Ashanti, and in the Egyptian Campaign. Of a very 
striking and commanding figure, with a strong, deter- 
mined face and a tremendous voice, he was the beau- 
ideal of a fighting leader. Personally I know that if 
he had ordered me to walk over a cliff or into a fire 
I would have done so without hesitation, and I believe 
that officers and men would have followed him any- 
where. He had a magnetic attraction which would 
have led men to do anything that he commanded. 
He had a fierce exterior, but a warm and kindly 
heart beneath it, and I never knew a better friend. 
He used to say of himself that up till twelve in the 
morning he was a devil, after which he was an angel. 
This was very true, except that the temper of the 
devil was short and quick and not malignant. 

On one occasion we arrived wet and weary at a 
camp-ground where the commissariat officer of the 
district was supposed to have arranged to have a 
camp all ready pitched for us, with rations and forage 
prepared also. But when we got there we found 
no preparation of any kind for our arrival, and we 



SIR BAKER RUSSELL ANGRY 23 

had to make the best of it under the circumstances. 
Next day, when we were trying to dry our clothes 
in the wind, and were making some sort of arrange- 
ments for feeding the men and grazing the horses 
pending the arrival of supplies, one of our men fell 
dead in a fit. The Colonel was not slow to make 
capital of this, and he telegraphed to the General of 
the district expressing his opinion of the want of 
organisation in the place, and in alluding to the hard- 
ships which men and horses were suffering he pointed 
out that already one man was dead of exposure. 

Within a few hours a young gentleman in plain 
clothes strolled into our camp and went jauntily 
up to the Colonel, asked him how he was, and then 
said that he was a commissariat officer and had come 
to see how we were getting on. The Colonel replied 
he was getting on very nicely, thank you, and so 
was the regiment and were grateful for his kind 
enquiries. " You, sir, are only a civilian, that is 
evident by your dress, but by G — ! if the com- 
missariat officer should ever dare to show his d 

nose within a mile of my camp, I should have him in 
arrest and shoved in the guard-room, not only as 
incompetent and unfit to be an officer, but as little 
better than a murderer. If, as you say, you are a 
commissariat officer, go back to your quarters, put 
on your uniform at once, consider yourself under 
arrest, and come back here and tell me why the 
h , etc., etc." 

On parade, if his feelings got the better of him, over 
some error or stupidity on the part of an officer, he 
would look at him for a moment with withering glance, 
then invariably he would jam his helmet down on 
his head and ride for that officer as hard as he could 



24 ARRIVAL IN INDIA 

go. If he had collided the results would have been 
disastrous to the man charged. It was therefore 
usual either to meet him or to evade him. On one 
occasion I remember well his suddenly going for 
my comrade, " Ding " MacDougal, at full gallop. 
When he was within a yard of that unfortunate 
officer, MacDougal jammed one spur into his horse 




Riding down a delinquent. 

and made it leap to one side, which resulted in 
the Colonel missing him completely and charging 
into the ranks behind him. Here he knocked over 
a man, Corporal Bower, and his horse, heavily 
shaking up the poor unfortunate rider. In a moment 
the Colonel was off his horse, supporting the Corporal 
across his knee and saying : " My poor, dear man, 
I am sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you." Feeling 
rather pleased that his charge had not been altogether 
without success, he had lost his rage and, turning 
round (I can see him now), he shook his fist good- 



A BEWILDERED TRUMPETER 25 
humouredly at MacDougal, saying : " Ding, you 
devil, why did you get out of the way ? " 

Ding explained to him later, during lunch, that he 
had become so accustomed to seeing a boar coming 
at him in just the same way (and Sir Baker, with his 
huge moustache and eager rush, was not altogether 
unlike the vision of a boar with his tushes charging 
towards one) that he had merely dodged him from 
sheer force of habit, to save himself and horse. 

Sir Baker Russell was not an orthodox colonel. He 
was in no way guided by the drill book, and knew 
little and cared less for the prescribed words of 
command ; but he had a soldier's eye for the country 
and for where his men ought to be in a fight, and he 
led them there by his own direction rather than by 
formal formations as laid down in the book. 

On one occasion we were inspected by a General 
whose life had been passed at infantry work. Sir 
Baker hoped, in making the regiment march past, 
to impress him by its steadiness. Therefore when it 
came to our galloping by in a succession of squadrons 
he meant us to go at a steady canter, each squadron 
in rigid formation. So he turned to his trumpeter 
and cried : " Sound the canter." Well, there is no 
trumpet call laid down for the canter, and the 
trumpeter therefore sounded the next best to it, which 
was the gallop. We in the regiment, anxious to make 
a good show, pressed forward at once at a sharp 
gallop. The Colonel, seeing this from his post along- 
side the General, shouted to his trumpeter, " Sound 
the canter ! " The trumpeter again sounded the 
gallop. Hearing the gallop repeated we imagined 
that it meant we were not going fast enough, and 
therefore we just let ourselves go, and by the time 



26 ARRIVAL IN INDIA 

we reached the saluting point opposite the General 
and Sir Baker, the whole regiment was a rushing 
tornado of men and horses in a whirl of dust, and we 
dashed past in a dense, confused mob. The Colonel, 
however, was not at a loss, and turned to the General 
with a well-assumed smile, and puffing out his chest, 
said : " There, sir ! You never saw a regiment 
gallop past like that before. That is something 
like." The General, being completely ignorant on 
the subject, took his cue from the Colonel and said : 
"No, that is splendid ; I never saw anything so good 
in my life," and reported upon it accordingly. 

Sir Baker was beloved of the men. The regiment, 
being the 13th Hussars, was nicknamed "■ The 
Baker's Dozen." He practised many things which in 
those days were looked upon as heresy, but are 
recognised to-day as producing the highest efficiency, 
that is, regard for and development of the human side 
and the individuality of the men themselves. Thus 
when we paraded for a field-day we generally did so 
at a rendezvous some two or three miles from 
barracks, and each man made his own way to the 
spot individually, instead of being marched there, and 
one of the standing orders in the regiment was this : 
" It is as great a crime for a hussar to be before his 
time as after it." This entailed strict punctuality 
on the part of the men in being at the appointed 
place at the appointed time. They had to judge for 
themselves how long it would take them to get there 
without hustling their horses, and they took their own 
line of country and used their own senses in arriving 
at the place properly and up to time. 

On one occasion the Colonel had to lecture one of 
his men for some minor misbehaviour. The man was 



THEN AND NOW 27 

a splendid type of old soldier, a wonderful boxer, 
swordsman, rider ; and marksman, but he was very 
fond of his mug of ale. When he was brought up for 
having had a drop too much, the Colonel remarked 
to him : " My good man, I only wish I could drink 
as much as you do and keep as good a nerve. Tell 
me how you manage it and I will let you off." Ben 
Hagan, for that was the fellow's name, explained his 
secret. It was to fill a hand-basin with beer every 
night before turning in and to place it underneath his 
bed. Then his first act on waking in the morning 
was to pour it down his throat. He believed that the 
only way to preserve health and nerve was to take 
big doses of really stale beer the first thing in the 
morning. 

It is curious, looking back on those days, to see 
what an enormous change has come over the men 
with respect to temperance and sobriety. It was the 
natural thing for every man to go to bed " half 
cocked," as they called it, and it was not entirely 
unknown amongst the officers too I When a regi- 
ment went on service from England, it was usual for 
a certain number of men to be retained or to be 
borrowed from another regiment to collect all the 
drunken ones for transhipment to the train or ship 
on the morning of embarkation. Even then there 
was generally a large number of deserters who did 
not turn up at all to go abroad. Nowadays a regi- 
ment goes off for foreign service just as if it were going 
off to a review or to manoeuvres : not an absentee, 
not a man the worse for liquor. The men are of a 
better class and tone, and facilities are given them 
for keeping up their sober habits. In barracks they 
have proper supper-rooms where they can get 



28 ARRIVAL IN INDIA 

moderate refreshments of all kinds at moderate 
prices. Formerly they were not allowed to have 
beer with their dinners, and they naturally adjourned 
as soon as dinner was over to the canteen to get their 
beer, remaining there, being treated or standing 
treat, for the rest of the afternoon, until they were 
full. 

Later, in my own regiment, the 5th Dragoon 
Guards, I have had to present a pair of white gloves 
to the Canteen Steward because not a single man 
visited the canteen in twenty-four hours : and they 
are not the worse men because they can be trusted 
out of sight of their officers and non-commissioned 
officers. 

That idea of Sir Baker Russell's of letting men 
make their own way to parade, etc., was acted upon 
by me in after years by making it imperative for 
every man to go a ride by himself of about one 
hundred and twenty miles, and to take a week in 
doing it. This tended to make men self-reliant, 
reliable, intelligent, and smart. At first it was feared 
that many of them, finding themselves away from all 
regimental restraint, would break out and make an 
orgy of it ; but I have never heard a single com- 
plaint of the men on this head. They knew they 
were trusted to carry out this duty of riding off to 
report on some distant object, whether a railway 
station, a bridge, or a piece of country, and they took 
a pride in themselves and their horses while away, 
because they knew that the good name of the regi- 
ment was in their hands. We found it in practice 
the very best reformer for a stupid man that could be 
devised. He had no one to lean upon for advice or 
direction, he merely had his plain, simple orders, 



DEVELOPING INTELLIGENCE 29 

which he had to exercise his intelligence in carrying 
out. 

This same practice I carried out also with the 
South African Constabulary after the Boer War. 
The men were generally sent out in pairs on long 
patrols of two to three hundred miles ; but if a man 




Joseph Chamberlain and the policemen. 

were really a stupid fellow he was sent out alone. I 
remember well, when conducting Mr. Joseph Cham- 
berlain on trek through the Transvaal, that we saw a 
solitary constable riding across the veldt. Mr. 
Chamberlain asked me what might be the duty of 
such a man, and I replied that he was probably a 
stupid man sent out to develop his own intelligence. 
We signalled the man to us and on enquiry we found 
that it was so. He had been ordered on a three 
hundred miles ride to pick up information at various 
spots, but with strict orders that he was not to have 
the help of any other constable. 



CHAPTER III 

THE SPORT OF KINGS AND, THE KING OF SPORTS 

The Shaping of the Subaltern — Polo Fever — The 
Keenness of the Ponies — A Savage Contestant — A 
Filial Subaltern — A Polo Banquet — Mr. Winston 
Churchill's Remarkable Speech — Winston a Prisoner 
for the First Time — " I am India-rubber " — The Pursuit 
of the Pig — The Attractions of India — A Born Sports- 
man — A Splendid Sport — A Brutal Father — A Boar 
Puts a Gun Out of Action — Tiger and Boar — Sir Samuel 
Baker's Experience — Tommy Atkins After Pig* 

I WAS once invited by the German Emperor to 
express my opinion on the lance used by His 
Majesty's cavalry. I replied that with all 
deference I considered it rather too long for practical 
use. He asked where I had my experience and I 
said from the pigsticking in India. We used in 
that country both the long and the short spear, but 
our long one was as nothing to compare with his 
lance for length, and even ours was considered 
unwieldy by some people. 

The Emperor agreed it might be so, but that one of 
his reasons for using a long lance, at any rate in peace 
time, was to give the right spirit of confidence to 
his men. He said : "I find that for every inch that 
you put on to a man's lance, you give him two feet 
of self-esteem " ; and there is a good deal in that. 

It is, however, an undoubted fact that in pig- 
sticking and in poio, just as in hunting at home, the 

30 



THE BRITISH CAVALRY OFFICER 31 
British officer has the benefit of an exceptionally 
practical school for the development of horseman- 
ship and of handiness in the use of arms when 
mounted, and it is a form of training which appeals 
to every young officer so much that he learns for 
himself instead of having the knowledge drilled into 
him. Consequently it is a genuine, permanent 
education to him instead of a form of ephemeral 
instruction. 

I believe in our cavalry officers as against those of 
any nation for all-round, good efficiency, and much 
of it I am convinced is due to this self-education in 
the practical side of their profession.* 

If polo and pigsticking have not altered the 
history of British India, they have at any rate 
altered the lives and careers of many young officers. 

In addition to the natural training involved they 
have completely driven out from the British subaltern 
the drinking and betting habits of the former 
generation, and have given him in place of these a 
healthy exercise which also has its moral attributes 
in playing the game unselfishly ; and above all the 
practice of quiet, quick decision and dash that are 
essential to a successful leader of men. 

When I first joined the 13th Hussars, John 
Watson, afterwards the well-known polo player and 
Master of the Meath Hounds, was Senior Subaltern. 
And well he played his part, for with an iron will and 
an iron hand and a flow of language above the 
average he wheeled us into line pretty sharply. In 
the morning he would ride out and lay a course for a 

* The above was written before war broke out with Germany. Sir 
Philip Chetwode's report that our cavalry can now go through the 
Uhlans "as if they were brown paper," points the efficacy of practical 
training over the theoretical idea of the Kaiser. 



32 THE SPORT OF KINGS 

paper-chase which all of us attended in the afternoon. 
He did not lay the line for nothing, but generally 
went over a pretty tricky piece of country with 
" gridirons," i.e., several parallel water-courses, which 
were liable to catchyour horse tripping, or "Absalom " 
jumps, where you took a fence under overhanging 
boughs. John Watson himself was always there 
behind the pack with a hunting crop to see that 
none missed their opportunities, and it did us all a 
world of good. 

One of the main pleasures of life in India for the 
young officer is polo. The game is indigenous to the 
country and has for centuries been played in Persia. 
The first record of its introduction into British 
notice was in 1862, when a team of Manipuris played 
an exhibition game on the racecourse at Calcutta. 
It was afterwards taken up by the nth Bengal 
Lancers and eventually by the 9th Lancers and 10th 
Hussars. It first made its appearance in England in 
1874, when the 5th Lancers took it up as a game. 
It was particularly popular among the Manipuri 
tribes in Upper Bengal. There the polo ground is 
the village street, the ponies are little rats of twelve 
hands high, and the players play with short mallets 
which they use indiscriminately with either hand. 
When I first joined, a large number of players played 
on either side, and the rules were not very strict 
about the size of ponies, or as to crossing, oft-side 
and the like. But as regiment began to play against 
regiment, and eventually tournaments developed, the 
rules crystallised and the game became more and more 
one of skill and discipline. 

Polo is without doubt the finest game that has ever 
been invented. It even moved one enthusiastic 



THE PLEASURES OF POLO 33 

sportsman of the 9th Lancers to turn his hand to 

poetry. This is what he wrote : 

" On a ground three hundred yards by two 

POLO is the game for me — is it the game for you ? " 

At this point his muse deserted him, but what he had 
written he had written. In those brief lines he 
records in one's memory the regulation size for a 
polo ground, and he propounds a big question for 
anyone to think out. It develops riding and 
straightness of eye and hand as well as the moral 
qualities of pluck and patience and unselfish playing 
for the side and not for yourself. In fact the 
morale in polo is of far greater value than outsiders 
might reasonably think. I have played in teams 
where one faint-hearted player was as good as two 
or three goals against us, because, if the game went at 
all badly for our side at first, he would lose heart 
altogether and make no attempt to retrieve our 
fortunes. 

One team against which we had often to play 
possessed a back with an infernally bad temper, and 
once his feelings were aroused he was quite useless as 
a player ; and thus our aim was to bump him or catch 
his stick as early as possible in the game, since it put 
him out of conceit with himself and with everybody 
else. 

Part of the pleasure attaching to polo was that 
involved in getting a raw pony and training it for the 
game. It was a real satisfaction to a poor man to 
pick up ponies in all sorts of out-of-the-way places, 
such as country villages, fairs, etc., and then to break 
them in, make them handy, balance them, and educate 
them into playing the game. This training was not 
only a pastime of itself but incidentally an education 

D 



34 THE SPORT OF KINGS 

to the rider as well. We felt almost inclined to pity 

the millionaire who bought his ready-made polo 

ponies, since he could not know the satisfaction of 

using the instruments made by his own hand for the 

purpose. 

The ponies themselves seem to enter truly into the 
game and really to enjoy it. My ponies were at all 
times pets and companions ; indeed, my last two in 
India, handsome grey Arabs, were as tame as dogs, 
and used to go out for walks with me, running with 
me, stopping and turning as I did, and coming to 
hand when whistled for, as sensible and as jolly as 
could be. I had reason to judge of the keenness of 
ponies for the game when on one occasion I was 
racing with another player for the ball. As my pony 
was gradually inch by inch passing his, it suddenly 
turned its head and, gripping hold of my fore-arm, 
dragged me off my mount and held me firmly, refusing 
to let go in spite of the efforts of its rider, and only a 
smashing blow on the nose caused it to relax its grip 
and release me. My arm was black and blue for a 
week afterwards. 

Robert Watson, the gallant old father of our 
Senior Subaltern, whose fame still lives in Kildare, 
was playing polo when well over seventy years of 
age. I remember that we subalterns read with 
enthusiasm how, when the fine old veteran had a 
fall in the game and broke his leg, John Watson 
nearly killed himself in riding down the man who had 
done it. The amenities of polo in those days were 
not so polished as they are to-day. 

The inter-regimental polo tournament is the great 
event of the year for all regiments in India, and on 
one occasion it was held at Meerut while my 



SUPPRESSING MR. CHURCHILL 35 

regiment was stationed there. All the teams visiting 
the place for the occasion naturally made use of our 
mess, and we formed a very large and happy family. 
On the night after the final tie had been decided, 
we had a grand dinner to signalise the event. The 
health of the winning team was drunk collectively 
and individually with all honours, and each member 
of it in turn tendered his thanks to the assembled 
company. Then the winning team proposed the 
health of the losers, and they naturally returned 
their thanks in a similar way, and proceeded to 
propose the toast of the runners-up, and so it went 
on during the greater part of the evening until every 
team in the place had had its health proposed, and 
speeches had been made without number, all harping 
on the one topic of polo. 

When all was over and a sigh of relief was going 
round, there suddenly sprang to his feet one of the 
members of the 4th Hussars' team, who said : 
" Now, gentleman, you would probably like to hear 
me address you on the subject of polo ! " It was 
Mr. Winston Churchill. Naturally there were cries 
of : " No, we don't ! Sit down ! " and so on, but 
disregarding all their objections, with a genial 
smile he proceeded to discourse on the subject, and 
before long all opposition dropped as his honied 
words flowed upon their ears, and in a short time 
he was hard at it expounding the beauties and the 
possibilities of this wonderful game. He proceeded 
to show how it was not merely the finest game in the 
world but the most noble and soul-inspiring contest 
in the whole universe, and having made his point 
he wound up with a peroration which brought 
us all cheering to our feet. When the cheering and 



36 THE SPORT OF KINGS 

applause had died down one in authority arose and 
gave voice to the feelings of all when he said : " Well, 
that is enough of Winston for this evening," and the 
orator was taken in hand by some lusty subalterns 
and placed underneath an overturned sofa upon which 
two of the heaviest were then seated, with orders 
not to allow him out for the rest of the evening. 
But very soon afterwards he appeared emerging 
from beneath the angle of the arm of the sofa, 
explaining : "It is no use sitting upon me, for I'm 
india-rubber," and he popped up serenely and took 
his place once more in the world and the amusement 
that was going on around him. I have often re- 
membered the incident on occasions since then 
when in politics or elsewhere he has given proof of his 
statement. 

Other incidents followed on that cheerful evening, 
such as polo pony races over jumps made up of furni- 
ture round the billiard room, and a musical ride on 
camels in the ante-room, but none of them made such 
an impression on my memory as did the first great 
speech of the future First Lord. 

India as a country has its attractions for almost 
every kind of visitor, whether from the point of 
history, romance, religion, soldiering, scenery, or 
ethnology, but I am sure that the point which appeals 
to every young Briton who goes there is the sport 
which can be obtained by the poor man in so very 
many different branches. There are big game and 
wild-fowl shooting, racing and polo, but 

The sport that beats them o'er and o'er 
Is that wherein we hunt the boar. 

To the uninitiated, the term " pigsticking " con- 
veys a very poor idea of what it really is. If its 



THE ART OF PIGSTICKING 37 

nature were more generally known it would prove 
attractive to a wider circle of sportsmen. There is 
no doubt that pigsticking as a sport far transcends 
any other. It is carried out by a party of three or 
four sportsmen mounted on horses and armed with 
spears, who ride down and fight with the wild boar 
of the country. The boar bears little resemblance 
to the " common or garden " pig of England, since 
he is a fine, upstanding, active and courageous wild 
beast. He can gallop as fast as a horse, and can 
jump anything that comes in his way. When he is 











A race for first spear. 



tired of running, and sometimes before, he turns and 
comes for his pursuer, using his tushes with terrible 
force and accuracy on horse or man. The hunters in 
following him have all their work cut out to overtake 
him in the run. Therefore it becomes an exciting 
race with them to see who can reach him first and 
wound him with his spear. The honours of the run 
go to him who first succeeds in doing this. But it 
involves, in addition to galloping, much twisting and 
turning as the pig " jinks " to the right or left to 
evade his pursuer. There is a good deal of negotiat- 
ing of obstacles, which, if not to compare with the 
fences of an English hunting country, are at any rate 



38 THE SPORT OF KINGS 

often formidable in their nature, giving one a chance 
of a heavy fall on ground which is harder than the 
average skull. 

When the pig takes to righting there is much for 
every one of the party to do in the way of spearing 
him, while saving his horse, and of backing up the 
other men and helping them out of dangerous predica- 
ments. It is a rough, wild sport, with perhaps a taint 
of barbarism about it if examined critically and in 
the abstract. But in actual fact it is neither so cruel 
nor so one-sided as one might be apt to think. I 
have somewhere stated that it is a good sport because 
it pleases the majority of those involved in it. There 
is no doubt that it is the most exciting work that a 
man can go in for. At the same time the horse with- 
out a doubt enjoys it almost as much as his rider, and 
the pig, too, being endowed with a fighting and blood- 
thirsty nature as well as a particularly tough and 
unfeeling nervous system, seems to revel in the fight 
up to the bitter end. 

I see in one of my letters to my mother in which I 
had dwelt on these points I wrote : " You may think 
it a cruel form of sport as you sit in your armchair 
at home, but I am perfectly certain that if you were 
riding with me here and saw one of these shaggy old 
devils coming at me you would be the first to cry : 
' Stick him, Robert, stick him ! ' " 

Pigsticking and foxhunting are continually being 
compared, but there can really be no true comparison 
between them, an important difference being that in 
the one a man may hang away from the hunting and 
have his fun in the gallop and jumping, whereas in the 
other the whole of the fun lies in actually hunting 
the animal yourself. To shine as a pigsticker it is 



THE SPEED OF THE BOAR 39 

essential that a man should be able to kill his pig 
single-handed. There is a good deal of woodcraft 
required in the finding of the animal, and there is 
plenty of hard riding and keen sight and knowledge 
of the pig's ways to be exercised in following him 
unaided, and finally a certain amount of skill, 
quickness, and determination are required for 
spearing and attacking the fighting boar successfully. 
The fun and excitement to be got from this lone 
hunting is even better than that to be derived from 
hunting in company. Where you get a party of 
four men after a pig, all of whom have gone through 
this apprenticeship, you are sure to have a ding-dong 
struggle for the honours of the run and a clean, 
merciful end for the boar. 

The pace at which a boar can travel is to a stranger 
perhaps one of the most surprising points about him. 
The actual speed and its duration depend to a great 
extent on the breed and condition of the pig, the 
state of the ground, and how he is being hunted ; but 
under general conditions a single rider will find it hard 
to beat him in pace for the first three-quarters of a 
mile, and if he should try saving his horse in the first 
burst, merely using sufficient speed to keep the boar in 
view, he will find that when he wants to overhaul him 
the pig has got his second wind and is quite prepared 
to go on for miles at a steady, lobbing canter. 

The boar had a great reputation amongst the 
ancients for rugged, uncompromising courage. The 
story of Adonis being killed by a boar is said to be 
merely allegorical, as describing the beautiful summer 
being ended by rough winter, Adonis signifying the 
sun and the boar being typical of hard and stormy 
weather. Plutarch in writing of Sertorius describes 



40 THE SPORT OF KINGS 

how Attis, a Phrygian, and another man in Arcadia 
were killed by boars. Attis brought it on himself ; 
he was a Phrygian shepherd who would keep singing 
songs in praise of the mother of the gods, and this 
wearied Jupiter to such an extent that he sent a 
boar along as being the most reliable agent to kill 
that Phrygian shepherd. 

Topsell in his Natural History pays tribute to the 
boar thus : " The swine, being the discourse of 
this beast. Although the differing kinds of it be not 
so many as in others, yet, because there are some 
things peculiar to the boar, therefore he deserveth a 
special story by himself." 

The boar possesses the nastiest temper of any 
living animal. The moment he is put out by any 
little annoyance he is liable to use his tushes, 
usually in an indiscriminate manner. He will attack 
anything, from his youngest son to an elephant. 
When galloping after a "sounder " I have seen the 
boar running amongst his young family, pitching 
them right and left out of his way. As a rule, it is 
very hard to get elephants to face a pig in the jungle. 
They know the danger. On one occasion a particu- 
larly staunch elephant was employed in beating a 
jungle, and on finding a pig she stood her ground. 
The boar promptly attacked her, and she received 
such a severe cut in her leg that she could never be 
got to face a pig again. Camels, also, whose very 
appearance suffices to scare most animals, have on 
more than one occasion been the victims of savage 
onslaughts by boars. 

Once in 1885, during a grand field-day at Delhi 
in the presence of all of the foreign delegates, a boar 
suddenly appeared and charged the horses of a 



CHARGING A R.H.A. GUN 41 

R.H.A. gun, throwing two of them down and 

effectually stopping the advance. The headquarter 

staff and the foreign officers, who were spectators of 

the deed, seized lances from their orderlies and, 

anxious to sustain the credit of their respective 

armies, dashed after the boar, who had cantered off 

in search of more guns to disable. His pursuers were 

too quick for him, however, and he was speedily put 

out of action amidst a chorus of vivas, sacres, and 

houplas. The honours of the run were secured by 

Colonel Bushman, the Deputy Adjutant-General, 

who was a fanatical believer in " the queen of 

weapons," the lance. 

Hans Breitmann tells how, , when he was serving 

as a Uhlan during the Franco-Prussian War, pigs 

were constantly keeping the outposts on the qui 

vive. With his usual originality he accounted for 

the number of sows in the Ardennes in the following 

lines : 

And all dese schweinpig sauen, 
Vot you see a running round, 
Is a great metempsygosis 
Of the Frantsche demi monde. 

With his singular pluck and aggressiveness the wild 
boar is without doubt the King of the Jungle, not 
excepting such popular heroes as the lion or tiger or 
buffalo. 

Mr. Inglis describes a pitched battle between a 
tiger and a boar, which he watched from a hiding hole 
near a pool, where the wild beasts came to water. 
" When the boar saw the tiger the latter roared. 
But," says Mr. Inglis, " the old boar did not seem to 
mind the roar so very much as might have been 
anticipated. He actually repeated his ' hoo ! hoo ! ' 



42 THE SPORT OF KINGS 

only in a, if possible, more aggressive, insulting, and 
defiant manner. Nay, more, such was his temerity 
that he actually advanced with a short, sharp rush in 
the direction of the striped intruder. Intently peering 
through the indistinct light, we eagerly watched the 
development of this strange rencontre. The tiger 
was now crouching low, crawling stealthily round 
and round the boar, who changed front with every 
movement of his lithe and sinewy adversary, keeping 
his determined head and sharp, deadly tusks ever 
facing his stealthy and treacherous foe. The bristles 
of the boar's back were up at a right angle from the 
strong spine. The wedge-shaped head, poised on the 
strong neck and thick rampart of muscular shoulder, 
was bent low, and the whole attitude of the body 
betokened full alertness and angry resoluteness. In 
their circlings the two brutes were now nearer to each 
other and nearer to us, and thus we could mark 
every movement with greater precision. The tiger 
was now growling and showing his teeth ; and all 
this, that takes such a time to tell, was but the work 
of a few short minutes. Crouching now still lower, 
and gathering his sinewy limbs beneath his lithe, 
lean body, he suddenly startled the stillness with a 
loud roar, and quick as lightning sprang upon the 
boar. For a brief minute the struggle was thrilling 
in its intense excitement. With one swift, dexterous 
sweep of the strong, ready paw, the tiger fetched the 
boar a terrific slap right across the jaw, which made 
the strong beast reel ; but with a hoarse grunt of 
resolute defiance, with two or three sharp digs of the 
strong head and neck, and swift cutting blows of the 
cruel, gashing tusks, he seemed to make a hole or two 
in the tiger's coat, marking it with more stripes than 



A BOAR FIGHTS A TIGER 43 

Nature had ever painted there ; and presently both 
combatants were streaming with gore. The tremen- 
dous buffet of the sharp claws had torn flesh and 
skin away from off the boar's cheek and forehead, 
leaving a great ugly flap hanging over his face and 
half blinding him. The pig was now on his mettle. 
With another hoarse grunt, he made straight for the 
tiger, who very dexterously eluded the charge, and, 
lithe and quick as a cat after a mouse, doubled almost 
on itself, and alighted clean on the boar's back, 
inserting his teeth above the shoulders, tearing with 
his claws, and biting out great mouthfuls of flesh 
from the quivering carcase of his maddened antag- 
onist. He seemed now to be having all the best of it, 
so much so that the boar discreetly stumbled and fell 
forward, whether by accident or design I know not, 
but the effect was to bring the tiger clean over his 
head, sprawling clumsily on the ground. I almost 
shouted : ' Aha, now you have him ! ' for the tables 
were turned. Getting his forefeet on the tiger's 
prostrate carcase, the boar now gave two or three 
short, ripping gashes with the strong white tusks, 
almost disembowelling his foe, and then, exhausted 
seemingly by the effort, apparently giddy and sick, he 
staggered aside and lay down panting and champing 
his tushes, but still defiant, with his head to the 
foe. But the tiger, too, was sick — yea, sick unto 
death. The blood-letting had been too much for 
him. And now, thinking that it was time for the 
interference of a third party, I let the two mutually 
disabled combatants have the contents of both my 
barrels, and we had the satisfaction presently of 
seeing the struggling limbs grow still, and knew that 
both were ours." 



44 THE SPORT OF KINGS 

Lying by a water-hole on a moonlight night one 
sees the deer come timidly down, with their ears 
pricking and turning to catch the slightest sound 
and their delicate nostrils sniffing the breeze in every 
direction. It is a time of much hesitation with them 
in approaching the water, and when they get there 
they only sip in a nervous, hasty manner, ready to 
dart away at the slightest alarm. Jackals, though 
far more cheeky, are none the less fearfully shy, and 
are constantly on the alert for danger, and the 
leopard carries out all his movements with a creeping 
stealth and a watchful looking round as though he 
had someone on his trail all the time. The only 
animal who cares for nothing is the old boar ; he 
comes swaggering down the path and all others slink 
out of his way and leave the water when he comes to 
drink. This he does in an offensively hearty way. 
If an alarm is sounded, he merely looks up and 
bristles all over, angry and eager for the fray, where 
others would dart or sneak away. It is a well 
ascertained fact that, of all animals, the boar does not 
fear to drink at the same pool with a tiger ; nay, a 
case is on record of his having taken his drink with a 
tiger on each side of him. 

One night I was fortunate in seeing a whole party 
of pigs come down to drink. Loitering about near 
the water, they rooted up the ground and occasion- 
ally nudged each other with their tushes. They 
were of all kinds, young and old. Presently two 
young boars got quarrelling with each other and 
made a desperate rush together, cutting at each other 
with their budding tushes. Those around them 
immediately suspended their rooting operations, and 
stood in a sort of semi-circle watching while the two 



A PIG FIGHT 45 

combatants set to, for all the world like a couple of 
boys boxing before their elders. It was quite a little 
fight, and they went at it with the greatest energy 
and rage, each trying to gouge out the other's eyes, 
or to gash him in the neck. They could not do each 
other very much real damage, but before long their 
heads and throats were glistening in the moonlight 
with trickles of blood, which their little razor-like 
tushes managed to draw from frequent cuts and 
scratches. That is the upbringing of a young boar. 









i^i< 




Knocked out. 



On one occasion in my experience, a sportsman, 
fresh from England, was sitting quietly on his mare 
outside the cover during a beat (of course taking no 
pains to conceal himself), looking with rather a 
contemptuous eye on all the preparations for killing 
a miserable pig, when an old boar looking out from 
the bushes spied him and without thinking twice 
about it went straight for him. The sportsman 
gaily advanced at a canter to meet him, in spite of all 
his companions' advice not to head him. The boar, 
however, had no intention himself of being headed, 



46 THE SPORT OF KINGS 

and putting on an extra spurt charged straight for 
the mare's forelegs and knocked them clean from 
under her ; the fall that followed was " imperial," 
and the sportsman, who had pitched on his head, 
only came to his senses some twenty minutes later, 
with quite fresh opinions about the Indian boar. 

Another time a boar, hearing the coolies beating 
through the jungle towards his haunt, looked out to 
see if the coast were clear for a bolt across the open. 
Nothing was to be seen except one native gentleman 
stepping along the high road nearly half a mile away. 
Still, this was not to the boar's taste, so he went 
straight for the wretched man and gave him one 
gash that floored him with his thigh laid open, and 
then went on his way rejoicing. 

Major Gough (better known as " Gofty ") avers 
that a boar once charged him for three miles (more 
or less) ! He saw the brute come as a mere speck 
over the distant horizon ; it came on and on, nearer 
and nearer, faster and faster, until it rushed right 
on his levelled spear. 

Major Hogg writes : "I remember on one oc- 
casion the beaters paused on the brink of a large 
nullah covered with bushes and grass, and pointed 
out to me a dark object rather more than a hundred 
yards off, which they said was a boar and which they 
were afraid of. On riding up to about sixty yards 
the boar sat up on its haunches like a dog, and when 
we were within thirty yards he charged as straight 
as an arrow and as hard as he could. He was, of 
course, checked by a spear, but owing to the thick 
cover we took half an hour to kill him, and not before 
he had ripped three horses. 

■' On another occasion I was riding alone after a 



A DANGEROUS GAME 47 

boar which had taken the beaters three hours to 
dislodge from a steep hill covered with jungle. When 
he found I was gaining on him, and when I was still 
about fifty yards from him, he stopped short, wheeled 
round and charged. I speared him through the back 
and forced him on to his knees, but he broke my 
horse's off hind fetlock with his tusk. He then got 
one of the Shikaris down and nearly killed him, 
ripping him in five places, and cutting an artery in his 
arm before I could get up and spear him on foot." 



\ 



VSH^iMl- 




It took half an hour to kill him. 

Sir Samuel Baker, who had as much experience as 
most people of wild boar hunting in Europe, Asia, 
and Africa, has also shown his high opinion of the 
animal in his writings. He maintains that most 
wild animals are not inclined to attack a man unless 
wounded or provoked. " The buffalo/' he says, 
" is a stubborn and powerful antagonist, but, for a 
really firm and determined fighter who does battle 
for the love of the thing, the boar stands foremost 
among all animals. There is an immense amount of 
character in the pig. Not only is it a fierce antag- 
onist, but it is a clever and thoughtful creature. It 
is all very well to quote the term ' pig-headedness/ 



48 THE SPORT OF KINGS 

but there is a meaning in the name which commands 
respect. A pig knows its own mind, which is more 
than many human beings do. When it has made up 
its mind it acts without any trace of hesitation, and 
in this respect it sets a bright example to many of our 
generals and so-called statesmen." 

The above was written many years ago, before 
" Wait and See " was the British policy, and before 
I was a General, so the allusions are evidently not 
intended to be personal. When Sir Samuel Baker 
was at Khartoum he stayed with the Vice-Consul, 
Mr. Petherick, who had quite a menagerie of animals 
on his premises. In a walled enclosure he kept two 
very large wild boars. One night one of these 
managed £o get out, and, finding one of Sir Samuel's 
men asleep on his mat, he attacked him and gashed 
him so badly that for many weeks afterwards he lay 
helpless. " A few days after this occurrence," writes 
Sir Samuel, " I was sitting with Lady Baker in a large 
covered rakouba, or raised square, ascended by a 
broad flight of steps, when 1 heard a great noise in 
the farther end of the courtyard, and I saw the bricks 
falling from the top of the wall, showing that the 
boars were once more breaking out. Before the 
men had time to interfere the larger boar had 
effected a breach and made its appearance in the 
courtyard. The people immediately retreated under 
shelter, but the brute, having surveyed the scene, 
perceived us sitting above the flight of steps. With- 
out a moment's hesitation it charged at full speed 
across the yard from a distance of about sixty paces. 
The rakouba was about fifteen feet square, and, as 
we had lately arrived from Abyssinia, there were 
numerous trophies of the chase arranged about the 



TOMMY ATKINS PIGSTICKING 49 

pavement. x\mong these were many horns of rhino- 
ceros. Fortunately a long horn weighing about ten 
pounds was close at hand. This I immediately 
seized with both hands, and was just in time, when the 
boar was halfway up the steps, to hurl it with all my 
strength. It was a lucky shot, the heavy horn 
struck exactly between the eyes on the forehead and 
knocked our assailant down the steps, at the bottom 
of which he lay, kicking convulsively but thoroughly 
stunned and unconscious. My men now rushed 
forward and we secured the fore and hind legs with 
ropes, and dragged the beast to a neighbouring stall 
and locked it in. When the door was cautiously 
opened next morning, my men, who were prepared 
for an attack, found the boar dead. I was rather 
proud of my shot on this occasion, as I seldom throw 
a stone at an enemy without hitting a friend by 
mistake. Some persons are good at one sport, some 
at another, but throwing a stone to hit was never my 
pride, as I have generally failed in performance. But 
this boar was within five feet, which is just about my 
distance for accuracy." 

It would probably be something of a shock to the 
professional pigsticker to see Tommy Atkins joining 
in the fun, armed only with a sabre. I remember 
that there appeared in regimental orders one evening 
a notice that the regiment was to parade on the 
following morning at daybreak, mounted, with full 
water-bottles and ten rounds of blank ammunition 
per man. Rations were to go by cart, and " officers 
and troop sergeant-majors may carry hog-spears in 
place of swords." A unique and eventful day 
resulted. 

The jungle, a large tract of heavy grass and 

E 



50 THE SPORT OF KINGS 

jhow (tamarisk) bush, was attacked with all military 
precaution and completeness. The regiment pro- 
ceeded through it in line at half-open files ; patrols 
of four officers each were posted or moved well in 
advance of the line, so that when a boar was scared 
by the noise of the approaching line, the nearest 
patrol would ride after him and endeavour to bring 
him to account. 

The operation was so successful that in a short 
time each of the parties was away after its own 
particular boar. Pigs were still seen, however, 
running away ahead of the line with no one to hunt 
them. The Colonel, who had hitherto been directing 
operations, gave the order for the M.C.O.'s to take 
patrols of men with them and see what they could do 
with their sabres against the pigs, and parties went 
scouring across the country with the utmost en- 
thusiasm and delight. 

They galloped here, they galloped there, 
They fought, they swore, they sweated. 

To this day I can hear ringing in my ears the 
strident commands of Sergeant Fray to his squad : 
" Here he goes ! Right wheel, you beggars — right 

WHEEL ! " 

When the " Rally " sounded, the bag, beyond those 
killed by the spear parties, was not a large one ; 
still, that night the babel in the bivouac was almost 
ludicrous. Every man wanted to tell the tale of his 
own adventures with the Indian pig : one how his 
troop-mare, C. 16, had turned her tail upon the foe, 
and with her iron-shod heels had sent his front teeth 
rattling down his throat ; another strove to tell how 
he had stood the attack of " not only one, but four 



SWOPPING STORIES 51 

bloomin' swine, all of a go," and how single-handed 
he had beaten them all off. There were some fine 
lies swopped that night, and for months afterwards 
that was the day of days in the regiment, for every 
man had been given an opportunity of going for a 
Pig- 







Oh lor ! What's this ? 



CHAPTER IV 

THE KING OF THE JUNGLE 

The Boar's Quickness — His Tushes — A Remarkable 
Courage — The Duke of Connaught's Adventure — An 
Enthusiastic Ally — My First Adventure with Pig — A 
Humiliating Discovery — A Typical Run — The Kadir 
Cup Won for Me — The Pinner Pinned — A Lucky Misad- 
venture — Pigsticking on Foot 

ONE of the traits of the boar that usually 
strikes the beginner is his apparent ability 
to be at one moment some yards away and 
the next right under your horse ; and another is the 
power and accuracy with which, by a rapid twist of 
his head, he inflicts his murderous gash. This 
quickness and handiness with his tushes is learned 
and practised from his earliest youth, and is brought 
into use in his fights with rivals as he grows older. 
Boars do not, as many people think, use their 
upper tushes in cutting an enemy. These are too 
blunt and thick for that purpose and merely exist 
to sharpen and protect the lower tushes. A very- 
old boar with perfect upper tushes, but whose lower 
ones were broken off, once got beneath my horse and, 
although he marked him with streaks of foam from 
his jaws, he failed to inflict the slightest scratch. 
Another old boar, who had both his lower tushes in 
good condition, but one of the upper ones broken off 
and the other very blunt, was pursuing his angry way 

52 



A GREAT FIGHT 53 

across a field, having twice been speared, when he 
saw two natives at work. He charged one and 
inflicted several severe wounds. The other, coming 
to the assistance of his comrade, was also laid out 
flat on his back, and the boar lay on him and pro- 
ceeded to dig at his chest with his tushes. The man 




The man seized the boar's lower jaw with both hands. 

seized the boar's lower jaw with both hands and 
partially held it from him until he was rescued. In 
spite of this, however, he was more or less badly 
gashed in fifteen places. 

The courage of the pig is at no time better shown 
than when he is disabled by wounds and unable to 
run further. He stops to fight his way to some 
cover, where he may stand at bay. With feet 
planted wide apart and head lowered, he stands 



54 THE KING OF THE JUNGLE 

clashing his tushes together, his restless little blood- 
shot eyes watching every movement of his foes. At 
the nearer approach of one he rushes out and charges 
with an unexpected vigour ; then he will trot back 
to his old position and watch and wait. If a rider 
try to come up behind him, he will be round and on 
him in the twinkling of an eye. He never seems to 
lose heart and always keeps his head. He will throw 
himself time after time on to the spears with reckless 
courage, and even when being held off by a spear 
through his body he will endeavour to work himself 
up the shaft to get within cutting distance of horse 
or hunter. Wounds that would at least disable 
any other animal seem to have little effect upon him. 
Even with a splintered skull he has been known [to 
charge with undiminished vigour. 

Once when hunting with the Delhi Tent Club 
the Duke of Connaught had an exciting adventure. 
A pig had been started in a very difficult bit of 
country. As Lord Downe came up with him he 
turned and, in spite of being smartly speared, 
inflicted a frightful gash upon the horse's hock. The 
next to come up was Dr. Kavanagh, who was charged 
in his turn but was successful in checking the boar 
with a point in the head ; but the spear was driven 
in so deeply that it was wrenched from its owner's 
hand and remained sticking out of the boar's skull. 
In spite of this the valiant fellow again started for 
the jungle. At this moment the Duke came up and 
speared him with such effect that he seemed to 
relinquish all idea of flight and, having got rid of the 
spear in his head, set about charging his enemies. 
One of the party he unhorsed, another he pursued 
for some distance, and eventually, after a good 



THE HORSE AND THE SPORT 55 
tussle, was killed on foot, the Duke giving him his 
coup de grace. 

It is in the last stages of the hunt, when driven to 
bay, that the boar shows to the fullest extent that 
stubborn courage and reckless fierceness so charac- 
teristic of him, and which give him first place among 
animals of the chase. It is impossible not to feel 
pity as well as admiration for such a plucky beast. 

M. Levesque says : " J'ai beaucoup frequente 
les sangliers, et, parmi nos animaux sauvages, je 
n'en connais aucun que je trouve aussi estimable. 
C'est un brave, un chevalier sans peur et sans 
reproche, qui se bat courageusement jusqu'a la fin, 
et meurt comme un heros." 

The attraction of sticking this ',' hero " exists not 
only in the sporting risks, but also in the spirit of 
camaraderie that is engendered between horse and 
rider. If you watch a seasoned pigsticker at the 
cover side you will immediately recognise the 
sporting spirit that inspires him. I picture to myself 
the brown Waler mare whose well-loved form I shall 
never forget ; the way*she would get to cover, 
larking and playing about, pretending to imagine a 
boar in every bush, snatching at her bit as if the 
hard-baked soil before her were nothing but an ex- 
panse of soft turf, jigging and squirming as she goes 
along, with mischievous enjoyment at the effect of 
these antics upon her rider, who, however great his 
popularity at last night's mess table, is little better 
than a worm at five a.m. on a hot morning. 

Once posted outside the covert, her whole de- 
meanour changes ; she restrains her ebullitions of 
gaiety, and, as the distant cries of the beaters in the 
jungle strike her ear, she becomes motionless as a 



56 THE KING OF THE JUNGLE 

statue, while a slight tremor of her limbs and a 
quick, eager glancing of the eye from point to point, 
betray her readiness for the fray. As a jackal 
hitches by with drooping brush, or a peacock scuttles 
in undignified haste across the open before the din of 
the beaters, her ears prick and her head goes up for a 
momentary scrutiny of the fugitive, and at once 
returns to its position of watchfulness. At length a 
sudden quick throbbing of the heart, a jerk up of the 
head, with ears flung forward, warn the rider that 
a pig is afoot, and in a few moments more she is 
bounding away in pursuit, almost regardless of her 
rider's wishes in the first mad rush of her joy. 

Her keen and evident determination to beat the 
other contestants for the " first spear " would almost 
lead one to think she was throwing every ounce of 
her energy into the opening burst, did we not know 
from experience that she will retain a small reserve 
in hand for the final rush up to the pig at the critical 
moment. 

On a " jink," although the reins may be loose upon 
her neck, she will fling around endeavouring to 
emulate the quickness of the pig in turning. When 
the quarry "shoots" himself, as none but a pig 
can, over a mud wall, she flies the fence cleanly with 
just sufficient impetus to clear a hidden ditch or 
danger on the other side. She is always on the 
alert for an ugly hole or a yawning nullah, into 
which she will drop and spring out again on the 
other side. 

Once when dashing across an open plain of grass 
the pig suddenly disappeared and a moment later a 
wide, steep-sided kunkur hole lay beneath the mare's 
nose. It was equally impossible for her to stop or to 



A HUMILIATING MISTAKE 57 

clear it, so she quietly dropped into it, knowing that 
the boar was unable to get out and had to be tackled 
there — and we fought our battle out in the pit and 
won it. 

When the time arrives for fighting and receiving 
the charges of the boar, the mare sets to work 
temperately and coolly, obeying every touch of her 
rider's hand and leg, yet at the same time exercising 
her own wits when a sudden leap or turn will land 
her clear of an ugly rush from the foe. 

With such an ally as this, success in the pig- 
sticking field is assured to the hunter. 

One's first impressions generally remain clear, and 
though I have hunted many a pig in my time the 
incidents of my first run remain strong in my 
memory. It took place within a few miles of 
Muttra. A number of my brother officers had gone 
out to the meet and I, being occupied with some 
work in barracks, followed a little later. Coming in 
sight of them across the plains, I was making my way 
towards them when a huge pig jumped up out of the 
grass and went away in front of me. I tally-ho 'd 
him away and followed like blazes after him, and two 
more of my comrades, answering to the cry, came 
tearing after me. We ran the pig for a long way as 
hard as we could go, and at last Blagrove pressing to 
the front got his spear well into him, and soon after 
McLaren got another chance at him which brought 
him to bay, and he was soon polished off between us. 
But we found to our dismay that he was a " she," 
but very like a boar owing to her crest, grey colour, 
and tushes. It is a very common thing to find an 
old barren sow with tushes, and consequently she is 
easily mistaken for a boar. But it was rather 



58 THE KING OF THE JUNGLE 

disappointing to find one's first attempt thus made 
somewhat ridiculous. In India it is as bad to kill 
a sow as in England it is to shoot a fox. Before long 
we sighted another pig, and this time a genuine boar 
without a mistake. As it was my first time out I 
hung back a little in order to learn from the others 
how to do it. As we tore along after the pig, which 
was some way off, and were going as hard as our 
horses could lay legs to the ground, " Papa " 
(Braithwaite) who was leading went suddenly head 
over heels, horse and all ! He had tumbled over a 
huge boar that was lying hidden in the grass. Horse 
and man picked themselves up quickly, and in a few 
moments we were all away after this new quarry. 
For two miles we ran him before he was brought to 
bay, but being beginners we did not play the game 
very well, and before long three of us had plunged our 
spears into him and had let them go, and there he was 
with three spears sticking in him like pins in a pin- 
cushion, charging anyone who came near. 

At last one of our fellows dismounted, and as the 
boar charged him he received him on the point of his 
lance and so killed him. 

Here is a typical run taken from one of my letters 
of the time : 

" I was pigsticking with Cruikshank the other 
day and we had about one hundred coolies beat- 
ing through high crops for pig. We had gone a 
long time without seeing any, till at last a man 
working in an open field which was surrounded by 
fields of thick eight-feet high crops, shouted to us 
that two fine pigs had crossed a corner of his field 
about a quarter of an hour previously. So we went 
to the corner and found their tracks. They were 



A FALL 59 

those of a good boar and a very big sow, which had 
been going lame. We then started to track them 
and for over a mile we followed up the trail through 
thick crops over some hard open ground, through 
long grass and through some water, till they led into 
a thick crop standing out in the open. I circled 
round the field, and finding no signs of their having 
gone out on the far side I took up the tracking again 
and followed the pigs into their lair in the centre of 
the crop while Cruikshank kept watch at a corner 
of the field. The boar when disturbed left the cover 
within ten yards of my pal, and away he went after 
him and I followed with a very bad start. 

" I was riding ' Budderoo,' who was the sort of horse 
who invariably puts his forefeet into the middle of 
any hole or ditch that he may come across, and 
consequently comes head over heels every time. 
However, I had got into his ways and whenever we 
approached a small obstacle I used to ram him at it 
and give him the spurs as if it were something very 
big, and then he cleared it like a bird. After running 
about three quarters of a mile the pig got into a large 
field of Indian corn, and kept twisting and turning 
about in this, trying to elude me. At last I saw a good 
chance at him as he was going straight for a short 
distance. I shoved ' Budderoo ' along as hard as I 
could where I saw the pig was by the waving of the 
crop, when crash ! bang ! we came on a little mud 
bank, not two feet high in the middle of the crop, and 
over we went a clean somersault. I was on my feet 
before the horse was on his, and kicked him up on to 
his legs again. 

" When I mounted I saw that Cruikshank was still 
hustling the pig at the far end of the field, and just as 



60 THE KING OF THE JUNGLE 

I came near him, I heard a sudden angry ' gruff, 
gruff,' close to me and there was a big pig right under 
me ! I dropped the point of my spear into his back 
in the nick of time to save my horse, and sent it 
right through him, killing him dead. And then I 
found that after all it was the big lame sow, and not 
the boar, who at almost the same moment appeared 
breaking away over the open and making for some 
awfully broken raviney ground. What a yell we 
gave, and what a race we had to see who could get 
him first ! At it we went, hammer and tongs, both 
horses doing their utmost ; but finally ' Budderoo ' 
dropped astern and old Grex ranged up alongside 
the boar and gave him one which astonished him. 
For a moment he stopped thunderstruck, and then, 
with his ears pricked and bristles on end, he came at 
me ' like a thousand of bricks,' but only got another 
stab for his pains. He then plunged into a crop of 
millet standing about twelve feet high, and very 
thick. Into this my horse followed him beautifully, 
crashing blindly through the vegetation, till we 
suddenly came upon him at bay in a small opening. 
The moment he saw me he charged at me with a sort 
of roar of rage. But I got him through the back and 
pinned him to the ground, and we very soon finished 
him off." 

On another occasion my friend and I, hunting in a 
very thickly bushed country, got on to a splendid 
boar. Between us we pressed him and pushed him 
along at a great pace through the bushes, and more 
by luck than good management we succeeded in 
keeping in touch with him until finally, disgusted 
with our attentions, he turned and charged me. My 
spear went well into his back, but he passed right 



AN ARMISTICE 61 

under my horse, breaking the spear in doing so and 
carrying it off, still sticking in his ribs. Then he 
turned on my friend and charged him, but the horse 
he was riding being strange to the game did not like 
the looks of the infuriated monster coming at him 
with what appeared to be a big club swaying in 
front of him, and he very naturally turned tail and 
bolted before the apparition. Several times his 
rider tried to bring him to face the pig, but it was no 
use, so he gave me his spear and I went again at 
the brute and he promptly turned and charged me all 
right. I made a good thrust at his shoulder, but the 
spear glanced off without effect, so I quickly turned, 
and following him up gave him another on the top 
of his back between the shoulders, again without 
success. The spear was as blunt as a lump of lead 
and would make no impression on his tough hide. 
It was difficult to know what to do with one spear 
gone, the other useless, and only one horse capable 
of facing the animal. 

However, he ran into a thick isolated patch of bush 
and there stopped to see what we should do. We 
took counsel and agreed to leave him there while we 
retired to camp and furnished ourselves afresh with 
spears and horses. We called up the beaters, who 
by this time were not far away, and made them form 
a cordon round the cover to prevent his coming out. 
Then we galloped back to the camp a mile distant 
and re-armed ourselves. On our return, we found 
that things had been happening. The boar had come 
out and had charged my shikari, who, however, was 
an old hand, and, as the boar came at him, he not 
only jumped to one side but managed to grasp the 
broken shaft of the spear as the boar ran by and 



62 THE KING OF THE JUNGLE 

dragged it from him. The pig then went for an old 
coolie beater, and sent him flying head over heels 
backwards with a terrible gash on his thigh, and 
having contented himself with this display of 
temper he had turned and taken refuge again in the 
clump of bush. Our first care was for the wounded 
native who looked like bleeding to death. So we 
rigged up an impromptu tourniquet and stopped the 
bleeding, then readjusted the flap of thigh where the 
thigh-bone was exposed and stitched it in place with 
half a dozen stitches, after carefully washing out the 
wound. We bound the whole thing up in as 
businesslike a way as possible under the circum- 
stances and sent the old boy ofi on a bedstead to the 
neighbouring village, and I am glad to say the old 
chap recovered in spite of our ministrations. Then 
we mounted and got to work again on the pig. 

There was no driving him out of his refuge, partly 
because he found it safe and undisturbed and partly 
because the beaters were not quite so bold as they 
had been, owing to this casualty among their number, 
and they very readily adopted our suggestion of 
setting fire to the bush on its windward side instead 
of beating into it. This very soon had the desired 
effect, and the old boar came bounding out appar- 
ently as fresh as ever, and if anything a little more 
savage. We were after him in a trice, but so soon as 
he found he was being hunted he turned upon us and 
came at us bristling with rage, but it brought about 
his end, for with fresh horses and sharp spears we 
quickly settled the business. 

I once had the luck to get the Kadir Cup, very 
much to my surprise and delight. In fact, I 
could hardly believe it for a long time afterwards. 



IN THE FINAL 63 

It is the Pigsticking Challenge Cup for the long spear 
in North India. There were fifty-four horses running 
for it. The whole field were divided by lot into 
parties of four. Then each of these parties had an 
umpire to look after it. Each umpire took his party 
about in the jungle, and when he saw a pig he told 
the party to ride. The moment the word " Ride ! " 
was given, away they all went and the man who first 
speared the pig won the heat. There were fourteen 
parties in the first round and I rode in three different 
parties because I had three horses entered. I was 
lucky enough to win the first round in each of my three. 
Then all the winners of the first round, fourteen of 
them, were divided into four parties again, so I had 
a horse running in three of them. 

The four winners in this round were then to contest 
together for the Cup. " Squeers " was the first horse 
of mine that I rode in this round. I got up to the 
pig first, made a lunge at him and missed, and 
the spear catching in some grass was twisted out 
of my hand and the next chap came up and stuck 
the pig. So I lost that heat. But I won both my 
others with " Patience " and " Hagarene." So out 
of the four horses competing in the final for the Cup 
two were mine. As I could not ride two at once 
Ding MacDougal rode "Patience" and- I rode 
" Hagarene." 

Such excitement ! There were twenty elephants 
with onlookers, fellows up in trees and others riding 
their horses to see the fun. Away went a great 
boar ! " Ride ! " At the word away we went too. 
" Hagarene " soon got away from the rest, as she was 
tremendously fast and keen. The pig dashed across 
open ground into a very thick, coarse jungle, but I 



64 THE KING OF THE JUNGLE 

was pretty close to him and could just see him every 
now and then through the great tussocks of grass six 
feet high. " Hagarene " bounded through them ; 
then across twenty yards of open ground, and another 




patch of jungle thicker than the other and steeply 
banked. Down we went — no, we didn't, though very 
nearly ! One of the grass tussocks had a solid pillar 
of hard earth concealed in it which the mare struck 
with her chest, but she managed to recover herself. 
Now we were close on to him, and I got the spear 
ready to reach out and stick him. 



A MUD BATH 65 

At that moment a green sort of hedge appeared in 
front and almost as the pig disappeared through it 
" Hagarene " leapt over it, and there, ten feet below 
us, was the shining surface of the river ! The pig 
went plump in under water and " Hagarene " and 
I did the same, almost on top of him. Right down 
we went under water to any depth ; a deal of 
struggling, striking out, swimming in heavy clothes, 
hanging on to weeds, etc. At last I emerged on 
the far bank and saw " Hagarene " clambering out 
too and away she went full split for camp. I could 
just see the pig skulking away back where he had 
entered the water among some reeds, and as the 
other men in the heat came up to the hedge and 
looked over I pointed out the pig, and away they 
went. MacDougal got first to him, speared him 
and so won the Cup for me. 

I looked a funny object when all the other fellows 
came up to congratulate me. There I was covered 
with mud and water and garlanded with green weeds, 
but still the happiest man among them ! 

Another year I entered once more for the Kadir 
Cup Competition and was lucky in getting into the 
semi-final tie for the cup. In my heat there were 
three competitors and curiously enough the other 
two were also in my regiment. We were started 
after a pig and early in the run one of them fell, and 
his horse being lame he was unable to go on, so that 
it lay between the other one and myself. It was a 
hard, ding-dong race, neck and neck between us for 
a long way, but neither of us could get ahead and 
the pig managed to keep on just out of reach of both 
of us. At last he was showing signs of getting tired 
and we were creeping up to him, each eager to get 

F 



66 THE KING OF THE JUNGLE 

first spear, when suddenly my companion's horse put 
his foot in a hole and rolled head over heels with him 
and I was left with the tired pig just in front of me 
with nothing to do but to go on and stick him and 
win the heat. But on giving a parting glance at my 
companion I saw that he was lying badly knocked 
out with his head close to his horse's hind feet, and it 
looked to me as if the first kick which the horse gave 
in its struggle to get on to its feet would probably 
knock his brains out : so I sprang off my horse and 
went to his assistance and so lost my chance of the 
boar. The umpire gave us half an hour for the fallen 
runner to recover, then we mounted again and 
another boar having been found we two were 
started after him. My rival got away with a good 
start and slipped steadily away from me, overtook 
and speared the pig in right good style and so beat 
me. But I was not altogether sorry, as having won 
the Cup before it was just as well that another should 
win it now, so long as it came to the regiment. 

On my return to India after some years of absence 
I was a little anxious, when it came to pigsticking, 
as to whether my nerve still held good, for if once 
you are apprehensive about the ground that you are 
travelling over and begin to think how you will pick 
your way, your doom as a pig-sticker is sealed. The 
only way to hunt a boar is to keep your eye on him 
and not on the ground, and to trust to your horse to 
do the rest. 

The night before the meet I could hardly sleep for 
anxiety, and was thinking much about it again 
while waiting for a pig to break. But the moment 
his dusky form appeared lolloping away through the 
long yellow grass, all these anxieties disappeared. 



MY DEATH PROCLAIMED 67 

I forgot everything except that the pig was before 
me, and had a howling good run. The pig after 
being wounded took to a belt of jungle, and fearing 
lest he should run through it without stopping I 
galloped round the far side to view him coming out. 
However, he did not come out and we knew that he 
must be lying " doggo " inside. 

We reformed our party outside while the beaters 
were put through the jungle in line to drive him out. 
They came right through but no sign of the pig. 
Feeling sure that he was still in there we turned the 
beaters about and sent them through a second time. 
Still no pig ! Certain that he was still there I dis- 
mounted and went in with the beaters myself, spear 
in hand. I was in the centre of the line and, when 
we reached the middle of the jungle, I noticed that 
the beaters on either side of me began to edge away 
outwards, and I guessed therefrom that they knew 
pretty well where the boar was to be found. He did 
not require much rinding, for without any warning 
he suddenly charged me out of a bush. I had my 
spear lowered just in time to receive him, and the 
point went deep into his chest, but his enormous 
weight and impetus threw me over backward, and I 
lay on my back, still clutching the spear and just 
able to hold him off at a sufficient distance by a few 
inches to prevent him from slitting me open. The 
natives, stout fellows, immediately raised a howl : 
" The Colonel is killed ! " and proceeded to leave the 
jungle as rapidly as possible, but I was quickly 
relieved from my position by my companions running 
in on foot with their spears and polishing off the boar 
as he stood over me. 

Then they asked me : " Is this the way you always 



68 THE KING OF THE JUNGLE 

finish pig, taking him on foot ? " and in order to give 
colour to my action I had to say : " Of course, it is 
the only way." The worst of it was that after this 
I had to live up to my reputation, and whenever we 
got a pig badly wounded or going to bay in a difficult 
place, we had to jump off and tackle him on foot. 
But we soon got not only reconciled to it but 




<^>\V, 



I lay on my back, still clutching the spear. 

desperately keen on this addition to the ordinary 
excitement of a pigsticking run. 

As regards killing wild boar on foot one might well 
take a lesson from the natives of some of the islands 
in the South Pacific. One of their most prized 
ornaments for neck wear are the curved tushes of 
wild boars. These animals they hunt down through 
the thick bush with dogs and beaters, and it is the 
custom for the best hunters amongst them to stand 
in the pathways of the bush and meet the boar 



A GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION 69 

single-handed, armed only with a short sword, with 
which they stab them in the back as they charge. A 
well-delivered thrust aimed into the right spot, viz. , the 
spine between the shoulders, will drop the boar dead 
on the spot, just as it does cattle in the cattle yards 
of Fray Bentos in South America. But if the sports- 
man miss his stroke he is absolutely certain to be 
overthrown by the rush of the heavy animal and 
probably gashed to death in the stomach or thigh by 
its keen tushes. 

A recent account by Lewis Freeman gives a graphic 
description of this exciting form of sport. He tells 
how the native in waiting for the charge plants his 
feet firmly in the ground, scraping a shallow depres- 
sion in the soil to give the toes a firm hold on the 
earth. " As the boar charges the right foot is 
advanced half a pace, and the left leg straightened 
into a brace, the right arm holding the cutlass 
straight in the front is stiffened into a bar of steel, 
and as the pig rushes for him the point of the cutlass 
is dropped into the back between the shoulder-blade 
and the first rib, and the blade and handle of the 
knife are buried up to the wrist of the arm that 
drives it, and the charging animal crumples up into 
an inert mass without uttering a sound." But it 
needs a cool and confident man to do the trick. 

I could go on for the rest of the book on the 
subject of pigsticking, but I will be merciful. Those 
who wish for more on the subject will find it all in 
the recent fascinating volume by Major A. E. 
Wardrop, R.H.A., Modern Pigsticking. 



CHAPTER V 

LIFE IN THE PLAINS 

A Soldier's Holiday — The Tragedy of My Lunch — 
Summary Vengeance — The Forgotten Sentry — The 
Death of Jock — An Unlucky Day — The Land of Practical 
Jokes — Milk for Rosie — The Call of Christmas — Sir Baker 
Russell and the Mules — The Duke of Connaught in India 
l_ — His First Pigsticking Adventure — Swimming Rivers — 
A Dodge to Obtain Prestige — The German Emperor 
Amused — No Rations in Eternity — Our Methods in 
India — The Joys of the Cavalry Brigadier — A Lost 
Station — I Disturb the Colonel — Snipe and Gin — Lemon 
Pudding and Mustard — A Stolen Bicycle — Wunhi's 
Tea-House — Regimental Friendships 

MR. RUDYARD KIPLING has assured us 
that " single men in barracks don't grow 
into plaster saints," which is quite true. 
It is equally true that they do not degenerate into 
idlers, and never was this so true as to-day. The 
soldier's day begins early and it is a peculiarly 
arduous one. In a letter to my mother, written 
from the Plains, and which she has preserved, as 
only mothers can preserve every scrap and line their 
unworthy male progeny send them, I describe a 
day's work soldiering in India. I wrote : 

" Food is somewhat of a difficulty here in Quetta, 
especially luxuries. To-day is a holiday in India, 
Thursday is always a holiday for the troops, and to- 
day is Thursday, therefore to-day is a holiday. 

I will just tell you how I spent my holiday. 

70 



A SHAMELESS ROBBERY 71 

First, let me say that, as to-day is a holiday, I had 
ordered to be prepared at my house for lunch a 
cake, a tin of biscuits, and a bottle of raspberry 
vinegar, the only luxuries that can be obtained 
here. Well, although the day is a holiday, I had 
to be up at 5 for a musketry parade which lasted 
until 6.45. After that breakfast at 7, then orderly 
room from 8 to 8.30, then ball-firing on the range, 
two miles away, from 8.30 to 12. Then home to 
the much desired cake, biscuits, and raspberry 
vinegar : after which there would be rest until two, 
when I had to give a musketry lecture, followed 
by an hour's drill, after which I go to the races, then 
dinner, then the regimental theatre and possibly 
supper, and so to bed to be ready for next morning's 
parade at 5 a.m. and a day that is not a holiday. 
To revert, however, to those biscuits, cake, and rasp- 
berry vinegar. I had happened to remark to some- 
one what a lunch I was going to treat myself to 
after my labours of the morning, so when I struggled 
into my hovel shortly after noon, worn-out and 
fasting, what was the sight that met my aching eyes ? 
On my bed lay Jock and a young friend named 
Beetle fast asleep, both of them with very full 
tummies, and mixed up with them, also fast asleep 
with distended tummy, lay the Boy, who lives in the 
next hovel to me and is the owner of Beetle. My 
box of biscuits lay empty on the floor, also the 
raspberry vinegar bottle. Some crumbs in the 
plate showed where the cake had been. 

" Of course I had a bucket of water over the trio 
in about a minute, but it didn't bring me back my 
mixed biscuits, cake, and raspberry vinegar ; and 
only made my bed uninhabitable. However, the 



72 LIFE IN THE PLAINS 

Boy is on duty to-morrow and I have seen grapes 
and melons going to his hovel. I don't order any 
lunch for myself to-morrow ; you can imagine what 
I mean to do." 

Such are the little attentions that one gets from 
his " comrades in arms," during the time he is 
absent upon the business of Empire ! We were 
always on our guard against each other, as few 
opportunities of scoring off a pal were allowed to 
pass by. One night after turning in I was awfully 
thirsty and there was no water in my bottle, so I 
sent my man into the next-door hovel to ask the 
Boy for some. He promptly sent me back a glass- 
ful, thinking that I should drink it off in the dark ; 
but as I held it up to the light I saw about two 
inches of castor-oil floating on the top. Of course 
at that I had to turn out of bed and go and give him 
a good walloping. 

History sometimes repeats itself. An instance of 
this occurred at Jullundur. 

We were the guests of .the Devonshire Regiment, 
who were stationed there, and personally I was 
specially looked after by a subaltern — one Harris. 
That was in 1881. Eighteen years passed and in 
1899 I marched through Jullundur again with 
my regiment, camping there for a night. Again 
we found the Devonshire Regiment there and again 
Harris looked after me. They had been to many 
places in the interval, but at first glance it seemed 
a parallel case to that of the officer in Crete who was 
in command of the guard at the Customs House 
when the Allied Powers took over the island. A 
British guard came on duty in place of the Turkish 
one. The Turkish officer in command welcomed the 



THE DEATH OF JOCK 73 

relief with joy. He explained that fifteen years 
before he had gone on guard, expecting to be relieved 
in twenty-four hours ; but apparently his existence 
had been forgotten at headquarters, and he had 
remained there ever since — and was still a sub- 
lieutenant. 

One evening Jock went out for a stroll with our 
doctor, but disappeared just before he got back to 
camp. He was absent all night and next morning 
we found him about half a mile from camp with a 
nasty wound in his shoulder, evidently a stab. The 
wound was dressed and did not seem to hurt him 
very much ; indeed that evening he came to a nigger 
entertainment that we were giving and played with 
the different performers and attacked me with the 
greatest fury every time I touched my tambourine, 
to the great delight of the audience. But next 
morning he could not eat, and kept drinking water 
every minute. Then his lower jaw got paralysed 
and we had to pour soup down his throat. He rode 
on one of my carts on the march, but was so weak 
that he could hardly stand, then his hind-quarters 
got paralysed and he was in such pain, and the vet. 
said he could not recover, so I had him shot. 

That day was a curiously unlucky one for my 
troop. One of the men, our best runner, dropped 
down dead while we were striking the tents, and we 
had to take him along in the squadron cart, and at 
the end of the march I had to bury him and read the 
service over him. Then a horse in my troop was 
seized with inflammation and died, also a baggage 
pony died suddenly, as well as a camel. The 
odd thing was that the next day another man not 
belonging to the regiment but marching with the 



74 LIFE IN THE PLAINS 

troop dropped down dead with a burst blood-vessel. 
All this coupled with Jock's death made the twenty- 
four hours rather tragic. 

India is the land of practical jokes, and taking 
advantage of my simple nature people were always 
playing off their silly practices on me. As an 
instance, while at Meerut we instituted in the 
regimental lines a first-class dairy for supplying 
the men with good milk instead of the infected stuff 
they were liable to get from the native bazaar. 
We did this in order to lessen the chances of typhoid, 
which played so much havoc with our young soldiers. 
Our dairy soon obtained a great reputation, because 
for those who liked it we sterilised the milk and 
cream. We also had what was popularly supposed 
to be two grades of butter, one of which commanded 
a very high price by reason of its popularity with 
people outside the regiment. As a matter of fact 
it was exactly the same butter but with a little more 
saffron dye, which made it look nicer, and people 
maintained that it was quite a different quality 
and were therefore willing to pay for it several 
pence a pound more. However, that has little to 
do with my story. The point was that we were at 
Meerut, half-way up India, and could supply good 
milk to our friends. Meerut was a stopping place 
for the mail train from Bombay on its journey up 
country. 

One day I received a telegram from a friend far 
up in the North telling me that his sister was arriv- 
ing from England with her children and would be 
coming through Meerut on a certain day : would 
I kindly go to the train and meet her and give her 
a few bottles of our excellent milk for her children ? 



MILK FOR ROSIE 75 

I had some of the best sterilised milk prepared and 
put in bottles which I slung along the handle-bars 
of my bicycle, and I pedalled off to meet the mail 
train. As I passed by a neighbour's house some of 
them were playing tennis on the front lawn, and they 
waved to me as I went by, asking where I was going 
to with all the milk. As they knew my friend I 
pulled up and explained to them that I was going to 
the station to meet his sister, but I had no idea what 
her married name was. Could they tell me ? Of 
course they could, the lady was Rosie ; but what was 
her surname ? They puzzled and thought and could 
not remember who it was she had married. So my 
only information was that her name was Rosie 
and that she had two or three children. 

I met the train and walked all down it, looking 
at every likely looking woman, and finally, summon- 
ing all my courage, I went and asked each in turn 
if her name was Rosie. It was quite strange the 
different ways in which they received my question. 
The worst of it was that not one of them seemed 
pleased and not one of them responded. The con- 
sequence was that after wasting a lot of time and 
all my temerity I came away without discovering 
Rosie and without delivering my milk, as, by the time 
I had done with them, they were in that state when 
they would not accept even my milk as an apology. 

As I re-passed my friends' house they were all 
sitting on the wall waiting for me. They gave me 
three cheers and asked how Rosie was looking, 
and then I knew that I had been had. But it is a 
silly game, that of practical jokes, and I never in- 
dulged in it myself — except of course when necessary 
to pay out other people. 



76 LIFE IN THE PLAINS 

One might reasonably imagine that it would be 
difficult to maintain the jollity which is usually 
associated with the old English Christmas in that 
land of sun and summer, but we evidently had a very 
hearty attempt at it, since my letter to my mother 
says : "I awoke with a head that defies description 
and a face that has only a little bit of skin left on 
the left side of it, and hair that is all stuck together 
with blood. One knee is stiff and straight, there is 
a bruise and a lump the size of my fist on my leg, 
and every inch of my wretched body is aching ; 
but I am not so badly off as some others and the fun 
we had was worth it." 

It was at that Christmas, too, that we had our first 
chance of going to church, which had been impossible 
for us for the past two years owing to our being 
on service. We did not keep a parson and the 
Colonel read the service. " My wig ! he did look 
fine with all his orders, decorations, and medals 
quite hiding his uniform " (this from my diary). He 
used to take the service also in camp in Afghanistan, 
and one day, when he began with his enormous 
voice, the mules in the baggage lines all started 
whinnying, thinking he must be giving the order 
to feed. So he broke off in the middle of " Dearly 
beloved brethren " and shouted out : " Fall out a 
corporal from each troop and go and stop those 
mules making that damned noise ! " 

When in command of a brigade of native cavalry 
temporarily organised for manoeuvres, I found myself 
at Christmas time within a reasonable distance of 
my own regiment, so I made a plan to spend Christ- 
mas evening among my own comrades. This in- 
volved a cross-country journey by means of such 










Departing in Style 




5. 




Sleeping under Difficulties 

HOW I ATE MY CHRISTMAS DINNER WITH MY REGIM, r 




Travelling Modestly 




in Humility 



KA 




Returning like a Zoological Specimen 

r, AND THE CONVEYANCES THAT TOOK ME THERE AND BACK 



MY VARIED CONVEYANCES 77 

vehicles as I could get hold of, travelling day and 
night to and from my destination. A native rajah 
in the neighbourhood of my brigade camp gladly 
sent me on the first stage of my journey in his own 
carriage with a beautiful pair of white horses, with 
their tails dyed pink, which a rajah considers highly 
ornamental. But at the end of the first stage I 
had to content myself with a humbler turn-out, and 
towards the end of my journey was glad to get any- 
thing that had wheels and an animal to drag it. 

Starting out again in one of those gharries in which 
the natives of the country travel, I felt more like 
a caged beast than anything else, since they are 
closely barred in order to prevent thefts of the 
passenger's luggage while he may be dozing. As it 
was pouring with rain while I was doing this par- 
ticular stage, I was fortunate in being able to lay 
hands on a truss of straw, with which I plaited up 
a kind of shelter between the bars of my cage. 
Eventually I got hold of what may be called the 
sleeping car of the country, that is a kind of four- 
wheeled cab with a board between the two seats 
which enables one to lie down and imagine one is 
sleeping as one bumps along. In the result I got 
three and a half hours with the regiment and the 
remaining forty-six and a half I spent travelling ! 

I had the good fortune to be attached to the staff 
of the Duke of Connaught during his first term of 
service in India, when he was Major-General com- 
manding at Meerut. It was typical of him that he 
had at once thrown himself into the interests of life 
in India, and had rapidly picked up a knowledge of 
the natives and of their language. His first intro- 
duction to the regiment was when he came out and 



78 LIFE IN THE PLAINS 

met us on the line of march, and was very much 
interested in our camp and method of moving through 
the country. Later he visited us in our quarters at 
Muttra and took part with us in our sport in the pig- 
sticking field. 

We had one splendid run. There was a party of 
four of us, the Duke, McLaren, Dimond, and myself, 
after a young and very speedy boar, who led us a 
tremendous dance at a great pace through rather 
tricky country full of clumps of thorn bushes, which 
were continually delaying us at the critical moment, 
so that the boar kept getting a fresh start every time 
when we were gaining ground upon him. Eventu- 
ally, feeling himself done, he turned in a ravine and 
stood at bay. The Duke was first to come up with 
him, although he had not once been first in the whole 
of the run, and that is what frequently happens in 
pigsticking. The man on the fastest horse may lead 
the way, but very frequently the sharp twists and 
turns of the pig, when, tired of being hunted, he is 
about to charge or stand at bay, put the leader 
off and give an opening to one who has been riding 
second or third. 

The Duke was not slow to seize his opportunity, 
and delivered a thrust which secured him the honours 
of first spear ; the others on the field then closed in 
and gave the boar his quietus. Thus the Duke 
won his first spear in his first run. 

A part of my duties, in which I was intensely 
interested, was the very valuable practice of swim- 
ming rivers with horses, and it was one which was 
formerly very much neglected in our Army. I 
remember hearing great stories of what a certain 
foreign power was doing in that way, and went over 



TRICKING THE ATTACHES 79 

myself to see how they carried it out. A number of 
official guests were warned that on a certain morning 
at a certain hour a cavalry brigade would swim across 
a wide river. A special train carrying the foreign 
attaches and other guests would arrive at the river 
bank at the hour named to see the practice carried 
out. Not being one of the elite I took an earlier 
train and was there an hour before the time. 

Then I saw how they managed these things. A 
quarter of an hour before the special came on the 




Swimming horses 

scene, a brigade was marched through the river by 
a ford, leaving only about one hundred or two)hun- 
dred men and horses on the bank who were really 
good swimmers. Then the train came in, and the 
attaches had the pleasure of seeing a number of men 
and horses swimming splendidly across the deep 
part of the river. This looked to them like the rear 
guard of the brigade, which was already standing 
dripping wet on the bank. When they reached home 
they reported that they had seen the brigade swim 
across the river, or at least, owing to their train 
arriving a little late, they only saw the tail end 
actually in the water. But I had seen what I had 



80 LIFE IN THE PLAINS 

seen and I knew the truth. Although I knew how 
to pass the inspection of swimming, it was the kind 
of test that would not wash on service, so in India 
we carried out many experiments and many prac- 
tices in teaching our horses and men to swim. 

Fortunately in India every barrack is equipped 
with a swimming bath in which it is possible to 
teach every man to swim, if he cannot already do so. 
Then at certain times of the year the great irrigation 
canals were cleared by running the water out of them. 
As they were out of use for some weeks for this pro- 
cess, it was possible to get the authorities to allow 
them to be filled gradually and to let in just as much 
or as little water as we wanted for teaching our men 
and horses to swim through a short space at first, 
gradually increasing it until they got the whole 
width of the canal. When they were perfect at 
this work we would take them to flowing rivers and 
repeat the experiment, until they were really able 
to tackle almost every river they were likely to come 
across. It is not a thing which can be done without 
practice ; but when men and horses are at home at 
the work it is a most valuable addition to their 
training and efficiency. 

Our methods, however, are not always 
approved of by other nations. The German 
Emperor once pointed out to me on a big 
parade of his troops how he placed the infantry 
in the front line and the cavalry, artillery, engineers, 
and other corps in the second line. He gave the 
place of honour to the infantry in order to emphasise 
the fact that they are the arm to win the battles, 
while all others are the servants of the infantry to 
help them in their aim. But, he said : " You in 






A SUPERSTITIOUS GENERAL 8t 

England are not practical. You give the place of 
honour on the right of the line to the artillery, next 
come the cavalry, then the engineers, and after them 
the infantry. Why is this ? " I was a little non- 
plussed myself for an answer, because I fully agreed 
with His Majesty that the infantry are the important 
arm, so I made a shot at an answer, the first that 
came into my head, and said : "I expect, sir, that 
we do it alphabetically in England." This reply 
fortunately exactly met the case in his estimation, 
and he chuckled over it for a considerable time 
afterwards.* 

Sometimes there are forces at work that even the 
most far-seeing administration cannot be expected 
to guard against. Mother Shipton and her 
prophecies are now probably forgotten ; but they 
exercised a terrifying influence in the early 'eighties. 
I think one of her jingles ran : 

The world to an end shall surely come 
In eighteen hundred and eighty-one. 

In England many people, in the most abject fear, 
spent the fateful nights in the churches, chapels, 
and fields awaiting the awful event. At Quetta, 
being rather out of the world, we had forgotten the 
fate that was hanging over us. We were, however, 
much puzzled at the strange delay that occurred 
about that time in the issue of rations and forage. 
Nor were we able to understand it until the report 
got about that a certain general officer was so con- 
vinced of the accuracy of Mother Shipton's pro- 
phecies that he had decided not to give the necessary 

* He has no doubt since realised that even though put in the background 
on parade and considered "despicable" by him, the British infantry are 
equal to any in the world. 

G 



82 LIFE IN THE PLAINS 

orders for the issue of rations, etc., beyond the date 

the old lady had fixed for the end of all things, as 

food and forage were not likely to be required in 

eternity. 

I have been asked what is the best sensation I 
have enjoyed. Well, there is one which comes 
to me when I suddenly meet some old friend whom 
I have not seen for years, and it is one which I have 
also experienced when leading a well trained brigade 
of cavalry at a gallop. To put it as politely as I 
can, it is the sensation that your chest is going to 
burst and your inside to fall out with pleasure. 
There is a tremendous feeling of exultation in moving 
that great, rushing, thundering mass of men and 
horses just by a wave of your hand. I trained my 
brigade to that, and I never used a word of command 
nor a trumpet call, but did the whole thing by 
signalling with my hand. This I began years before 
at Colchester with my squadron there, and people 
used to laugh at the idea until the general, Sir 
Evelyn Wood, came along and saw there was some- 
thing in it. He made me try it in manoeuvres against 
the rest of the regiment, and, as luck would have it, 
it was a misty day and while we were silently moving 
about, working entirely by signals, we could hear 
the regiment wherever it went by the sound of the 
officers shouting the words of command. This 
gave us all we wanted to know as to their where- 
abouts, and we were able quietly to circle round them 
and charge down unexpectedly from their flank and 
rear. This system of directing a large body has 
since become usual in other branches of the service, 
and General Babington applied it with complete 
success to leading a cavalry division in manoeuvres. 



A MISSING STATION 83 

I enjoyed the same sensation on another occasion. 
It was when my regiment travelled down from 
Northern India to Bombay for embarkation to South 
Africa. We were moved by rail, in troop trains. 
These trains generally travel by night so as to inter- 
fere as little as possible with the ordinary day traffic, 
and the men are disembarked into rest camps by 
day. The train joggles along from station to station 
in a leisurely way, going into sidings even to let 
goods trains pass. 

The story goes that one dark night the train 
pulled up on the open line and ran back for a bit, 
then stopped, ran on again, then ran back, and 
stopped again while guard and engine-driver got 
down and searched with lamps. "What's up? 
Have you dropped something ? " asked one of the 
men. " No, but there's a station somewhere about 
here, and I think we must have run through it without 
stopping. But they haven't got any lights up, so 
we can't find it." 

So it may be imagined the journey was not 
altogether an exciting one, and I was getting 
as bored as most people with it when the brilliant 
idea struck me that although I was godson of the 
founder of locomotives I did not know how to drive 
one. No opportunity like the present. So I got on 
terms with the driver and took my place on the 
footplate, and was very soon, in my own estimation, 
quite a capable driver. 

We all know the Punch story of the nervous 
passenger who remarked to the old lady, his fellow 
traveller, on the terrific pace that they were going, 
when she proudly replied : " Ah, that's my son driving, 
and he's the boy to go when the liquor's in him." 

I rather fancy from what I got afterwards that our 



84 LIFE IN THE PLAINS 

Colonel woke up realising that the train had suddenly 
exchanged her demure progress for a new life, and 
was rocking and tearing along at 70 miles an hour. 
He asked the reason and got the answer that 
probably I was at the lever. There was no com- 
munication cord in that train ! 

But the thrill came when we ran down the ghats. 
The ghats are the cliffs and gorges which lead from 
the great plateau of India down to the coast level. 
The railway zig-zags down these at pretty steep 
gradients, round hairpin corners, over lofty bridges 
and viaducts. Flying down these, with the brakes 
on, is something like an emotion, but the climax comes 
when before you in the moonlight you see the sudden 
black abyss of a chasm with nothing across it but 
the two rails shining like silver wires. The bridge 
being an open lattice one is practically invisible. 
For a brief moment you wonder whether it is there 
or has been carried away, and you feel inclined to 
yell with exultation as she jumps on to it with a 
spring and a roar and screams across the depths. 

Snipe shooting was one of the delights of the 
Indian plains. But as a rule there were not more 
than three or four snipe jheels (bogs) within reach of 
cantonments, and it meant very early rising on Thurs- 
day morning (the weekly holiday) for a fellow to get 
out and to be hrst on the ground, when there were 
possibly a dozen others at least at the same game. 

Mickie Doyne in my regiment volunteered to take 
me out for a week-end to a distant jheel, where 
nobody else was likely to go. He said that he would 
be responsible for the feeding arrangements, I had 
nothing to do but to bring my gun and ammunition. 
After a long journey by dog-cart, with horses previ- 
ously laid out in stages, we got there, and set up 



MUSTARD AND LEMON PUDDING 85 
our camp. " How about supper ? " " Yes, here's 
the bread, and I've brought some Hollands gin. 
The water here seems all right, if a little thick perhaps, 
but still it's wet. Meat ? Oh, we will get that when 
we get the snipe to-morrow." 

But that was the extent of his commissariat — 
some bread and some gin ! No butter, or any such 
luxuries. All my questions were met in the same 
way. " Jam ! what do you want with jam ? Tea ! 
why tea, when you've got gin ? " " Lard ! what for ? 
For cooking the snipe ! Try gin." 

So we did and the result was excellent. The 
system was afterwards adopted in the mess, and has 
since, I believe, been taken up by the Ritz Hotel ! 
From such small acorns do oaks grow. 

This is not the only dish in whose invention I 
have had a share. Once when dining with a friend 
lemon pudding was offered to me. I took it and 
asked for mustard to go with it. This caused a 
certain amount of curiosity, and I maintained in the 
most natural way that of course mustard was the 
right thing to take with lemon pudding. I was so 
serious about it that no one smiled or disbelieved. 
The consequence was that when I came to dine at 
the same house a year or two later I found mustard 
was handed round with lemon pudding as the regular 
thing ! 

It was not an unusual thing when dining out with 
friends to bicycle to the party instead of using a 
horse or a trap. On one occasion when I had done 
this, and had left my machine outside in the verandah 
of the house where I was dining, I found on starting 
to return home that it had disappeared. I assumed 
that my servant had come and taken it away. 



86 LIFE IN THE PLAINS 

On returning home, I found that this was not the 
case, so at early dawn I went back to my 
host's house to see if there were any signs of the lost 
machine. It was not anywhere about the premises, 
so I proceeded to track it. 

This would not usually be an easy thing to do on 
the hard surface of an Indian cantonment road, 
but I found that the machine had moved off while 
the dew was still on the road, and so by looking 
along the surface some distance ahead I could just 
see a faint mark of where the wheels had gone. 
The front wheel of my bicycle was locked by a 
catch which prevented the wheel from turning to 
either side, and thus it could not be ridden or guided. 
From the track I soon discovered that the thief 
who had taken it had not discovered this catch and 
was therefore unable to ride the machine. He had 
walked beside it, but there were no striking points 
about his footmark to show whether he was a native 
or a Britisher. He had not at any rate the nailed 
boots of the soldier, nor had he the bare feet of a 
native, so I followed the tracks of the wheels for 
a considerable distance along the mall. The tracks 
took me past the turning which led to the native 
city and past those which led to the cavalry bar- 
racks, and eventually turned up a road which led 
to the barracks of a certain infantry battalion, 
and there they got lost on hard ground. I therefore 
wrote a note to the adjutant asking for search to 
be made, and in a short time received my bicycle 
safely back. It had been found under the bed of 
one of the soldiers, who said it had been put there 
by somebody while he was asleep ! 1 was not very 
particular as to how it got there so I had it back 



THE LAND OF HOSPITALITY 87 
again in my possession. A little tracking knowledge 
is sometimes a useful thing ! 

The close intercourse that necessarily arises be- 
tween Europeans stationed in a small cantonment in 
India brings about a form of friendliness and hospi- 



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My tea-house sign. 

tality which cannot be equalled in other parts of the 
world, and, though as in all small communities there 
is bound to be a certain amount of tittle-tattle and 
of prying into one's neighbour's affairs, yet this is 
entirely counterbalanced by the amount of sympathy 
and real life-long friendship that is engendered by 
such close communication. Open-house is natural 
to India, where all the windows are doors, and all 



88 LIFE IN THE PLAINS 

the doors are open to the air ; but open-house is also 
prevalent in the other meaning of the word, for 
hospitality has no limit in that country. In Meerut 
I was known as " Wunhi," the name being derived 
from my part in the play of The Geisha. As my 
house lay on the direct road from cantonments to 
the polo ground it was always open to all comers who 
wanted refreshment. This was an understood thing, 
whether I was at home or not. It naturally received 
the name of " Wunhi's tea-house." The only 
stipulation I made for people using it was that which 
I had painted up on either door-post of the entrance. 

Friendships exist between certain regiments which 
have begun under different circumstances long ago, 
but they continue through generations of soldiers 
until their origin is lost in the mists of antiquity. 
The 13th in the Peninsula were brigaded with the 
14th Hussars, or Light Dragoons as they were in 
those days : owing to the wear and tear of service 
they were known as " The Ragged Brigade." The 
friendship between the 13th Hussars and the 9th 
Lancers showed itself in their meeting in Afghanistan 
and again two years later, and this was accentuated 
by the frequent competition between the officers 
of both regiments in the polo field and at pig- 
sticking. But as regimental friendships exist, so 
also do regimental feuds. In the old days, when the 
War Office had no human feeling within its walls, 
these feuds and friendships, besides many minor 
things that are dear to the soldier, were entirely 
ignored, and it was thought that regulations were 
the only means of solving differences. 

On one occasion the authorities found out their 
mistake when they tried to station two antagonistic 



REGIMENTAL FEUDS 89 

regiments in the same place. The fights between 
the two became so bad that at length one regiment 
was removed to another station, and we were sent 
to replace them. The first evening after our arrival 
one of our men, when out for a walk, was set upon by 
three or four of the regiment already stationed there. 
They had not known of the departure of their rivals 
and took our man to be one of their hated enemies, 
but in setting on him they set on the wrong man for 
such an encounter. He was Gauld, formerly in a 
Highland regiment and now a farrier in my squadron. 
In peace time he was gentle, in fact he knitted many 
a pair of stockings for me, but when roused his 
farrier's sinews were used with an extraordinary 
amount of pugilistic cunning, and he very soon 
polished oh; his assailants in a manner that aston- 
ished them. When they found he did not belong to 
the regiment they hated so much they were all 
apologies and admiration, and this started quite a 
good feeling between ourselves and our neighbours. 




CHAPTER VI 

DISEASE AND THE DRAMA 

The Scourge of India — A Sergeant Orders His Own 
Funeral — The Tragedy of the Ball — A Brave Doctor — 
An Erratic Visitant — The TragicDrama — The Adjutant's 
First Question — Scene-Painting Extraordinary — The 
Simla Theatre — Strenuous Rehearsals — Pantomime at 
ioo Degrees — On Tour — Overlooking the Viceroy — 
" Do Your Blacks Run ? '• — The Criterion at Quetta — 
A Laughing Dialogue — Asleep on the Stage — An Em- 
barrassing Greeting — The Question of Health — Some 
Bacteriological Observations — Sir Baker and the Doctor 
— An Explosion — A Solomon in Judgment — The Regi- 
mental Doctor 

THERE is a dark side underlying the bright- 
ness of life in India, and that is the 
sudden disease and death and the quick 
burial which causes so many breaks of friend- 
ship in that land of sun and sorrow. Death seems 
to come so suddenly and so frequently into one's 
ken. Men half -mad with heat are apt to shoot 
themselves, pigsticking kills many of its devotees, 
enteric seems to catch the younger men, and cholera 
snatches all. I remember the case of a sergeant 
actually ordering his own funeral. A man had died 
suddenly in the night of heat apoplexy. In the 
morning the sergeant read the orders to his troop 
for the funeral to be held that evening, then dropped 
dead himself with heat apoplexy and was carried 

to his last resting-place in the same procession. 

90 



CHOLERA 91 

No man is ever safe, and if he escape himself he 
never knows when a friend may be stricken. 
' Tommy " Dimond " joined " with me. We came 
out in the Serapis together, rode together on the 
bullock-cart through Bombay, shared our trials as 
last-joined subalterns, were house-mates and stable 
companions, class-mates at the garrison school, 
began our pigsticking and polo together, rose to 
regimental staff -billets, so that we were naturally 
fast friends and likely to be so for life. But death 
came and took him. 

He was one who went in very little for social 
amusement ; being strong and sturdy he was natur- 
ally more given to hardship and sport ; but on this 
occasion he forewent his custom and attended a ball 
with another major in the regiment. Returning 
home to his bungalow in the early hours of the 
morning, he was suddenly taken ill, as was also his 
companion. A r doctor who was present at the ball 
came to see them and after a short visit sent for 
another doctor and went back himself to his own 
house. The second doctor came and remained with 
the two men, until a few hours later they both died. 
Wondering at the absence of the first doctor he went 
to see him, only to find him also dying ! He had 
felt the disease upon him but had not mentioned 
it, so that the two officers should have the fullest 
attention. 

Cholera is so erratic in its methods as to be as inter- 
esting as shells, for whose eccentric action there is no 
accounting, argue how you will. At Lucknow when 
we were there cholera almost invariably started "in 
a certain bungalow in the barracks, so much so that 
this bungalow was at length condemned, pulled down 



92 DISEASE AND THE DRAMA 

and re-built, and within a week of its being re- 
occupied the first case of the season again took place 
in it. On one occasion only the men in alternate beds 
along one side of the bungalow were seized with the 
disease. In a certain camp cholera appeared one 
day in all the tents on one side of the main street 
and in none on the other. Cholera attacked our 
regiment one night, taking twelve men in the married 
quarters, and no further cases occurred. Very 
frequently when cholera was rife amongst the natives 
it made no attacks amongst the white troops, and 
vice versa. It was a most unaccountable disease. 
For some years it practically disappeared, and enteric 
seemed to have taken its place. Talking with a 
doctor on the subject he said that medical methods 
had now completely stamped out cholera and would 
probably do the same for enteric before long. Within 
a few months the worst outbreak of cholera we had 
had for many years seized upon the 8th King's 
Liverpool Regiment, and enteric flourishes to-day. 

Naturally the spirits of the men go down when 
disease is rife, and also, per contra, disease becomes 
prevalent when the men's spirits are down. This 
is apt to be the case towards the end of the long hot 
weather, when heat and fever have worked out their 
vitality. It was then that we did our utmost to keep 
up the men's cheerfulness by holding theatricals, 
concerts, sports, etc. Probably people at home in 
reading of our many amusements imagine that in 
India we must be a frivolous lot, but there was in 
reality a deep import underlying our merriment. 
We worked hard, almost desperately, at theatricals 
and the like, fighting against the ennui which is the 
breeding ground of sickness. 



SCENE-PAINTING EXTRAORDINARY 93 

On joining the regiment one of the first questions 
asked me by the Adjutant was : " Can you act, or 
sing, or scene paint ? " This struck me as curious 
and incongruous. I thought that he would only 
care for my ability to drill, to ride, or to shoot. But 
later on I realised the inner meaning of the idea. 
I began as scene-painter in our regimental theatre, 
and in that capacity was afterwards invited up to 
Simla for the theatre there. It was not on account 
of my excellence as a painter, but on account of the 
rapidity with which I was able to work at scene- 
painting owing to my ambidexterity. It was easy 
for me to slam away with a paint brush in each hand 
because I unfortunately do not know which is my 
better hand, the right or left, so I use them both. 
In this way I did the work at double the pace of the 
ordinary painter ; the quality may not have been 
good but the quantity was all there. I even went 
so far on occasion as to strap a brush on to each 
foot, and sitting on a crossbar between two ladders 
I managed to paint a woodland scene in record time 
with four brushes going at once ! At least it was 
meant to be a woodland scene, but I think rather 
required a notice on the programme to that effect, 
before people quite understood what it represented. 
I was a futurist before my time. 

Theatricals thus formed a very important item 
in Indian life, and the importance is increased by the 
fact that very few professional companies can afford 
the expense of journeying through India, only to 
find small stations and therefore small audiences 
to play to. But at Simla there is a very good theatre 
managed by a committee of residents who cater for 
the good of the whole community by getting up a 



94 DISEASE AND THE DRAMA 

series of performances throughout the summer 
season. They call upon the vast field of amateur 
talent all over the country for supplying the best 
performers for the different plays they initiate. 
In this way one received many invitations to visit 
the Hills, for a week or so at a time, to take part in 
such theatricals. 

Performers were under an obligation to learn their 
parts, and to be thoroughly up in them before they 
came up to Simla; thus a week's rehearsal was 
generally sufficient to bring them together in the play 
and to insure a really good representation. The 
whole thing was taken quite seriously both by the 
management and by the cast. Rehearsals were 
strenuous, the dresses elaborate and the scenery of 
a very high order, to meet the demands of a pretty 
critical audience. It therefore became a pleasure 
to the players, as well as to the public, to have a 
share in such well-ordered entertainments. 

One of the first performances that I was let in 
for in the regiment was that of Fra Diavolo, a burles- 
que, followed by a pantomime harlequinade in which 
I was appointed to the part of the " Clown," with 
A. M. Brookneld, afterwards M.P., as Pantaloon. 
This gave me plenty of healthy gymnastic exercises 
in the way of jumping through clocks and shop win- 
dows, and rolling through cellar flaps head over 
heels. As the pantomime took place in May, with 
the thermometer ranging close on ioo°, I very soon 
lost what little flesh 1 had, and was little better than 
a bag of bones by the end of the run of four nights. 

We stuck at nothing in the way of theatricals. 
Trial by Jury was only a step to The Pirates of Pen- 
zance, H.M.S. Pinafore, and Les Cloches de Corneville, 



OVERLOOKING THE VICEROY 95 

with full chorus, all got up regardless of expense. 
After very successful runs in our regimental theatre 
we took our company round to other stations and in 
this way paid expenses, and were able to fit up a 
really fine theatre for ourselves. 

I am perfectly convinced that the innumerable 
smaller concerts and dances which we got up almost 
every week had a real effect in maintaining amongst 
the men a healthy spirit of cheeriness, as well as 
esprit de corps, and consequently told favourably 
on their health and on the well-being of the regiment. 

One of the first plays that I saw in India was 
Walpole by Lord Lytton, father of the then Viceroy 
of India. It was a most powerful play, but one 
which needed perfect acting and staging to make it 
effective, otherwise it could easily be made ridiculous. 
On this occasion it left nothing to be desired, because 
the company were all selected performers and 
excellent in their several parts. Under the critical 
eye and close interest of Lord Lytton himself it was 
a splendid success. 

I remember his visiting Lucknow when my regi- 
ment was there, and one of our number unwittingly 
insulted him. Pat Constable, a tall, splendidly- 
made, smart-looking officer, was possessed of im- 
measurable swagger, and he walked into the 
Audience Chamber preening himself, adjusting his 
belts, etc., and strode straight past the Viceroy 
without noticing him. On arrival at the far end 
of the room he was met by an agitated aide-de- 
camp who said : " You have gone past His Excel- 
lency without bowing to him. Why was this ? " 
Constable, not in the least disconcerted, answered : 
' 'Oh,did I really ? I'm awfully sorry, I never saw him. ' ' 



96 DISEASE AND THE DRAMA 

On another occasion at mess, when we had as one 
of our guests the Colonel of a native infantry 
regiment, Constable, having nothing in common with 
him, had failed to find any subject for conversation 
during the first part of the meal ; wishing, however, 
to be kindly and affable, he turned to the guest and 
said : " Colonel, I take a great interest in your 
branch of the service, and I have always wondered 
what you do when the trumpet sounds ' the trot.' 
Do your blacks run ? " The poor colonel's feelings 
are not to be described. 

When we were at Quetta there was only one real 
house in the place and that was the Residency. 
There were a few mud huts, which served as hospital 
and barracks for our men, but most of us lived in 
tents. There was a good deal of sickness among 
the men, so we had to take up sports and theatricals, 
to keep them happy and healthy. To this end we 
started to build a theatre, but there were difficulties 
in the way, as timber was unprocurable. There was 
not, as a matter of fact, enough wood in the place 
to make regular coffins for those who died, and they 
were buried on planks covered in canvas. There- 
fore we made our theatre out of an old brick kiln 
for stage and dug out the fronts seats and built 
up the back with mud bricks, and made a kind of 
out-door amphitheatre of it, over which by means of 
ropes and pulleys we were able to drag a canvas roof, 
made from tents. Since so much of it had to be 
dug out we called it " The Criterion," after the under- 
ground theatre at Piccadilly Circus. 

One of our most successful pieces at The Criterion 
in Quetta was The Area Belle, and it was the more 
successful for an unrehearsed effect which took place 



INFECTIOUS LAUGHTER 97 

at one of the performances. Troop Sergeant-Major 
Slater was playing the part of the policeman, and, 
being well-furnished with human tissue, he filled 
the part to perfection. I was a simple Highlander 
in rather a scanty kilt for my inches. Earlier in 
the play, pretending to feel the draught, I had tied 




Tosser and Pitcher in The Area Belle 



a comforter round each knee to promote warmth. 
The policeman and I were in conversation when he 
happened to catch sight of my knees, and then he 
began to shake like a jelly, and finally went off into 
howls of laughter. I don't know why, but I caught 
the infection at seeing him shake so, and that sent 
me off ; and finally, in a few moments, the whole 
house was rocking and crying in unison with us. And 
all about nothing at all. Still it was quite a success. 

H 



98 DISEASE AND THE DRAMA 

One of the greatest delights of theatricals is, I 
think, the unrehearsed effects obtained. Once when 
playing the part of a man dressed as a monkey I 
fell asleep on the stage, and the other actors had to 
give me a prod as well as my cue. This took place 
on the night before my examination in tactics, and 
is evidence that my nerves were not unsettled by the 
prospect of the morrow. 




The disregarded cue. 

The sins of one's youth find one out ! The play- 
acting propensities of my younger days in India 
told against me badly on one occasion when I 
returned there after twelve years' absence. I now 
came out to that country to take command of a very 
distinguished cavalry regiment. I was holding 
court in the regimental orderly room, with officers 
and sergeant-majors assembled to hear me lay down 
the law to them, when a gentleman was announced 
as being at the door desirous of seeing me. 



AN AWKWARD SITUATION 99 

I was pompously telling the orderly to let him wait 
when he suddenly appeared within the room, and 
rushed at me with both hands extended — a clean- 
shaven, longish-haired, disreputable-looking person — 
crying out : " Hullo, Private Willis, how are you ? 
Well, I am glad to see you, my dear old boy ! " 

I draw a veil over my debasement before the eyes 
of my new corps. What, for the moment, they must 
have thought about me and my past I have never 
dared to think, but I hastened to explain to them, 

" Hullo, Private Willis ! " 

when my exuberant friend had departed, that during 
my last visit to India a professional theatrical com- 
pany had come to play Iolanthe at Meerut. On the 
day of the performance one of their actors fell ill 
and I was asked, at short notice, to play his part — 
— that of Private Willis, the sentry outside the 
Houses of Parliament. And I shan't forget that 
performance in a hurry ! I learnt it up somehow in 
the course of the afternoon, never having seen the 
play in my life, and went on without having had even 
one rehearsal. I got through my bit fairly creditably 
under the circumstances, up to the point where I 



ioo DISEASE AND THE DRAMA 

gave the cue for the lady to come on : but she failed 
to come. In place of her the stage-manager's head 
only appeared, telling me in a stage whisper to " gag 
a bit, she ain't ready." So I gagged a bit, and 
fortunately it was a soldier audience to whom I was 
playing, including, indeed, the Duke of Connaught, 
and it was easy to interpolate a little dissertation on 
the joys of sentry-go. 

But somehow the same stage-manager, who also 
played the parts of leading comedian, second villain, 
and call-boy, felt grateful to me for rilling the gap, 
and even after a lapse of so many years he had felt 
impelled to come and greet me on my arrival. He 
meant well, but very nearly ruined my reputation. 

" It is just as much part of the soldier's duty to 
be healthy as to be a good horseman or a good shot : 
and it is just as much the duty of the officer to teach 
him how to be so and to see that he is so as to teach 
him to ride or to shoot or to be efficient in other 
ways." This was a warning which I once published 
on the subject of sickness. In the South African 
campaign we had eighteen thousand admitted to 
hospital for wounds, but nearly four hundred thou- 
sand for sickness, though South Africa is not such a 
very unhealthy country. 

In India enteric fever is far more deadly in its 
results than cholera used to be, and, although it is 
not so startling in its action, it kills a far greater 
number of men in the course of the year. It has 
therefore been the aim of all officers to endeavour 
to save their men from this scourge. The men 
themselves, trained in the ordinary Board School 
education in England, had absolutely no idea of 
looking after their own health, and had to be treated 



PRECAUTIONS AGAINST DISEASE 101 
almost like children in the matter of warning against 
things that were bad for them. Had they possessed 
some knowledge of hygiene and sanitation some 
50 per cent, of the sickness and a large number of 
lives might have been saved.* 

In our regiment, as in most others, we took very 
strong precautions against disease among the men. 
For the two years during which we were in one station 
I kept a constant record of the number of cases of 
enteric, each day, week, and month, noting with them 
the direction of the wind, state of barometer, and 
the particular barrack in which cases occurred ; and 
of the respective barracks I took note of the height 
of the flooring above ground, the nature of the roofing, 
whether thatched or tiled, the dryness or dampness 
of weather and ground, and upon these observations 
we got some quite useful and suggestive information. 

We came to the conclusion in the regiment that 
probably a good deal of disease was caused by the 
men being careless what they ate and drank when 
out walking in the native town away from barracks. 
Therefore we started for their benefit a bakery, under 
white supervision, where they could get all the cakes 
and tarts which were dear to them ; also we had our 
own soda water factory, where lemonade, gingerbeer, 
and other fancy drinks were manufactured from the 
cleanest materials ; and, as already stated, we started 
our own dairy to insure that the milk, cream, and 
butter should be prepared in the cleanest possible 
way and free from all chance of contamination. In 
spite of all these precautions there was still a certain 
amount of disease in the regiment, so in addressing 

* A wonderful development in this direction has taken place in the 
present campaign, thanks to the practical work of the Army Medical 
Staff, and to the better understanding of officers and me». 



102 DISEASE AND THE DRAMA 

the men on the subject I suggested that the experi- 
ment should be made of seeing whether the disease 
actually came from their going about in the native 
city. I pointed out that they were grown-up men and 
not children, and I should not therefore order the 
city to be out of bounds for them, but I thought 
it would be wise if they tried the experiment of not 
going there for a fortnight, and if no further cases 
of sickness occurred it would show that the disease 
originated there. A few days after this one of the 
men was admitted to hospital badly bruised and 
knocked about, but he refused to give the cause of 
the injury. It afterwards transpired that he had 
gone down into the native quarter, and the other 
men on hearing of it had given him a bit of their 
mind ! 

I shall not readily forget the occasion when Sir 
Baker Russell, the General Commander-in-Chief in 
Bengal, came round to the barracks to look into the 
statistics, and how he made himself master of them. 
He then tackled the principal medical officer, without 
saying that he had any special information. 

The medical officer was one of the good old school, 
whose whole attention was directed to the cure of 
disease without any regard for its prevention. 

" Does the direction of the wind have any effect 
upon the number of cases of enteric ? " inquired Sir 
Baker. 

" No, no, General," he replied airily, " not at 
all." 

" Has the elevation of the barracks any effect ? ,; 

Again the reply was in the negative. 

" Does it make any difference whether barracks 
are tiled or thatched ? " 



A DIPLOMATIC COLONEL 103 

" No, no," replied the medico, now becoming 
flustered at the questions put to him by the General ; 
" it has no effect whatever." 

After a few more questions Sir Baker turned on 
him in that inimitable manner of his, which made a 
man feel that he was reading his very soul, and 
inquired : "Do you know anything about the 
subject ; have you ever made a special study of it ? " 

" Well, no -" began the medico. 

Then Sir Baker turned and rent him with a volume 
of abuse which seemed to make even the birds in 
the trees tremble ; for the wrath of Sir Baker 
Russell was a thing that all men strove to avoid. 

I remember his quaint way of dealing with a 
delicate case which came before him, when one of 
the soldiers' wives complained against another. The 
two ladies were brought before Sir Baker. 

" Well, Mrs. Bell, and what is your complaint 
against Mrs. Clapper ? ". 

" Oh, sir, Mrs. Clapper she says I was a draggle- 
tailed lady-dog ! " 

" Well, but you are not, are you, Mrs. Bell ? " 

" No, sir, I'm no lady-dog." 

" No, of course you are not. I'm perfectly cer- 
tain you're not a draggle-tailed lady-dog ; quite 
positive. So good morning, Mrs. Bell ; go away, 
and don't think anything more about it." 

One institution which was really a good one in the 
old days has unfortunately been done away with 
under the modern developments of organisation, 
namelyt he regimental surgeon, since nowadays the 
doctors form one general corps. The regimental 
doctor used to be a great institution in every regi- 
ment. He knew every man, woman, and child and, if 



104 DISEASE AND THE DRAMA 

he was a good fellow, as he usually was, he was a kind 
of recognised friend and adviser to all. In those 
days the colonel was more out of touch with his 
young officers than he is to-day. It would then have 
been unthinkable that a colonel could be in the 
regimental polo team, or could take part in sport 
with his subalterns as is usual now. Therefore it, 
was that in any of his financial, love, or other troubles 
the young officer generally consulted the regimental 
doctor and looked to him for advice, moral just as 
much as medical. 

Our doctor in the 13th was typical of his kind. 
Generous-hearted and sympathetic to a degree, 
he had only one fault. Through having Hungarian 
blood in him he was very quick in his temper, and 
if anyone did not exactly agree with him he was at 
once eager to fight a duel. I have often read in 
novels how people turned pale with anger and let their 
eyes blaze, but I have seldom seen it in actual life 
except in the case of this doctor. With him it was a 
frequent occurrence, and I am not likely to forget 
the night when, after he had made a glowing speech 
in proposing the health of one of us at the mess, and 
had made to sit down complacently at the end of 
it, full of " beans and benevolence," he found that 
owing to someone having removed his chair he sat 
on nothing before reaching the hard ground. Then 
his " beans and benevolence " went to the winds ; 
he sprang up, really pale and shaking with rage. 
He looked round for a second to find who had played 
this trick, but seeing no clue to it in the delighted 
faces all round, he rushed to the mess butler and 
urged him with a promise of fifty pounds to give 
him the name of the culprit. He looked as if he 



A CHALLENGE 105 

would have killed him then and there had he known 
who it was. As it was, he merely challenged the 
coward, whoever he might be, to fight him next 
morning with pistols. But next morning would 
have found him the same genial, kindly fellow that 
he was at heart. 




CHAPTER VII 

HOW INDIA DEVELOPS CHARACTER 

Killing Ennui — Tommy Atkins as a Sportsman — Spies 
in Disguise — A Sham Fight — The Perfect Soldier — 
Learning to Observe — Night Operations — The Man 
Who Made Grimaces — The Modern Training — Interest- 
ing the Men — Sir Bindon Blood's Views on Cavalry — An 
Irate General — The Woman Abroad — The Scout 
Mistress — The Rani's Answer — A Fearless Rani — Colonel 
Alexander Gardiner — His Romance — A Tragedy 

THERE is no doubt that the best preventative 
of disease in India is plenty of work, occupa- 
tion and exercise. It is the ennui that kills. 
The difficulty is to make the work interesting so 
that it does not become a treadmill of drudgery. 
For the officers shooting, pigsticking, and polo all 
offer their attractions and make them far more 
healthy as a rule than are the men. Our Colonel 
was so fully impressed with the value of keeping 
up the health of his officers that, instead of keeping 
the weekly holiday as determined by regulations 
on Thursday, he moved it to Friday, and thus 
made the week-end into an outing by removing the 
mess into the jungle and leaving only the orderly 
officer to take charge of the regiment during Friday, 
Saturday, and Sunday. Those of the men who were 
good shots and capable of looking after themselves 
were also encouraged, during the hot weather, to 
go and live out in camp for several days at a time. 

106 



KEEPING FIT 107 

The Government allowed a certain number of 
sporting guns for this purpose, and a large number 
of the men availed themselves of the privilege and 
made themselves into self-reliant, capable bushmen. 

There was too much of a tendency to coddle the 
men during the hot weather. Native syces, or 
grooms, were supplied by Government to look after 
their horses ; but we made the men groom and feed 
their horses regularly, as it gave them exercise and 
occupation. At least once a week we had all-night 
field-days. Then also a great deal of our drill and 
instruction was competitive between squads, sec- 
tions or troops. Latterly the system of teaching the 
men to be scouts came in as an additional form of 
training, which appealed to the men and gave them 
plenty of outdoor exercise by day and by night. 

It was reported to me sub rosa that one of the men 
when in hospital confided to his nurse : " This new 
Colonel is the devil to work us ; but the worst of it 
is, the more we work the more healthy we are." 

The need of a practical training in scouting had 
often been in my mind even as a young officer, and 
I had carried out a good deal of it in my early days 
in India. But its importance was brought home to 
me more especially in the campaign against the 
Matabele in 1896, where I found that, although we 
had plenty of men who were willing and eager to 
undertake adventurous rides against the enemy, 
they were seldom able to bring back the sort of 
information that we wanted and not be led away by 
chances of little fights and scraps on their own. So 
when I got to India after Matabeleland I set to work 
systematically to train the men in the points in 
which I found them deficient in practical soldiering. 



108 HOW INDIA DEVELOPS CHARACTER 
People seemed to think, and indeed many outsiders 
still do, that if a man could march past and look well 
on parade, he was therefore a perfect soldier ; but 
in reality he was only a part of a machine. This 
was all very well for show purposes but not the 
slightest use against a really active fighting enemy 
in the field. Our men came to us as lads from their 
Board Schools, well grounded in the three R's of 
reading, writing, and arithmetic, but without any 
manliness, self-reliance, or resourcefulness. These 
were points which we had to put into them and which 
could not be merely taught in theory ; but they 
came through the practice of the different duties 
which go to make up effective scouting. 

I remember in Ireland, during the early days of 
my attempts, taking my squadron out of barracks 
at Dundalk in the late evening. We swam our 
horses across the tidal river before getting on to our 
ground among the hills. Here we had plenty of 
moorland where men could easily lose their way 
unless they watched their courses by the stars. 
They were given duties to perform generally in pairs 
or singly, in order to develop their self-reliance 
and intelligence. As they were out all night they 
brought rations with them and learnt how to make 
their fires in hidden places and to cook their food for 
themselves. Their ingenuity was exercised in finding 
fuel, and I complimented one patrol in particular 
for the excellent fire which they had made, whose 
embers could have cooked a splendid meal. My 
admiration was lessened when later a farmer came 
to the Colonel demanding compensation for a gate 
which they had pulled down and burnt. 

In India night operations of this kind were of 



THE DROWNING MAN TURN 109 
course the delight of the men, especially as we 
generally acted in opposing forces of a few scouts 
against each other on two sides. On one of these 
occasions I bivouacked with one party of scouts, and, 
knowing that the other side were as yet a good many 
miles distant, I suggested to them to have a little 
camp fire to themselves with songs and chat. We 
talked on many subjects of interest, but I could not 
help noticing that one of the men was continually 
leaving the circle and going out into the darkness 
for a few minutes and returning again. At last, 
noticing his continued restlessness, I feared he might 
be ill, and I told my sergeant to question him. I 
overheard his reply. " Oh no, there is nothing the 
matter with me, but that beggar Fox is on the other 
side, and I can't help feeling he is creeping around 
and watching us." There is no doubt the men got 
to take an intense interest in scouting, which out- 
weighed all other considerations with them. 

I did not allow a man to take up scouting unless 
he was capable both as a horseman, marksman, 
and swimmer. In this latter particular a man was 
merely questioned as to his capabilities, but the time 
arrived when we actually put him to the test. 
On one occasion in the course of our work we had 
to swim a big canal, and one of the scouts in swimming 
over was apparently playing the fool, diving down 
and bobbing up again, making most fearful grimaces, 
which drew roars of laughter from his assembled 
comrades, until it suddenly struck them that he was 
actually in distress, when some of them promptly 
went to his rescue and brought him ashore. On 
inquiry it turned out that he had never learnt to 
swim, but like the man who volunteered to play 



no HOW INDIA DEVELOPS CHARACTER 
the violin, "he had never tried but he supposed that 
he could ! " 

One of the points of modern training of soldiers 
which astonishes an outsider is the amount of tactical 
instruction which is given to the men themselves. 
In the course of manoeuvres the tactical situation 
and object of the day's work is carefully explained 
to the men in the beginning of the day. And then 
from time to time a halt is called and further ex- 
planations are given of the progress and developments 
that have taken place. In this way every individual 
man understands what is going on, and therefore 
plays his part in the general scheme with far greater 
interest and intelligence. 

In cavalry manoeuvres we introduced an extra 
bit of realism which was of additional interest and 
practical value. We allowed each side to use three 
spies in disguise, whose duty it was to find out all 
they could about the enemies' moves. This was 
good practice for the spies and sharpened their 
intelligence and, at the same time, was valuable 
in teaching the men to be cautious when speaking 
to strangers. It is a common fault with soldiers 
that, when they understand a field-day and take 
an interest in it, they are ready to answer questions 
and to explain the scheme to any onlooker who shows 
a desire for information. For this reason in South 
Africa our plans were often given away to specious 
gentlemen who were in reality Boer spies. But in 
manoeuvres, with the knowledge that spies were 
about, men became very cautious about giving away 
information, and in many cases, thinking that they 
were speaking with such people, they made up wonder- 
ful yarns in order to mislead them. Soldiers are 



TACTICS in 

rapidly learning that cunning which completes the 
four C's of soldiering, viz., Courage, Commonsense, 
Cheerfulness, and Cunning.* 

In India when we had had a field day it was usual 
to issue in the evening, for the information of all 
ranks, a short narrative illustrated by a sketch plan 
of what had gone on during the day, pointing out 
the reasons, mistakes, and good points of the actions. 
I take one from many examples ; a non-military 
reader can easily grasp it. " The Southern division 
in column of route on the main road learnt that the 
enemy's division was about two miles distant to its 
left. Leaving the road our division formed into 
preparatory formation with one brigade in front and 
two in the second line. Our scouts soon signalled 
that the enemy was in sight approaching our left front. 
Our guns came into action at once against the enemy's 
main body, and were replied to by his artillery 
almost immediately due north of them. Our divi- 
sion took ground to the right and thus drew the 
enemy on to attack it. Then the enemy formed line 
preparatory to charging, but our division still kept 
on its course across the front of the enemy in pre- 
paratory formation, thus causing him to alter his 
direction (which it was almost impossible to do in 
good order when committed to line), and at the same 
time drew him across the fire of our guns. At the last 
moment our division, wheeling each brigade into line 
to its left, charged the enemy in double echelon in 
good order, and was awarded the victory." 

It will be seen that in carrying out this plan the 

* If ever a campaign showed the value of these attributes the present 
war has done so, and has proved that our men are possessed of all, 
especially the very important one, under the circumstances, viz., Cheer- 
fulness. 



ii2 HOW INDIA DEVELOPS CHARACTER 
enemy were not only drawn across the front of our 
guns, but also across that of their own artillery, 
and were thus prevented from firing into our division. 
The General Commanding expressed himself highly 






a V 



9f'% 




Our plan of attack. 

pleased with the whole manoeuvre, and especially 
with the good scouting of Lieutenant Garrard's 
patrol, which gave exact information as to the where- 
abouts and movements of the enemy/' 

Another method of interesting the men in their 
regiment and in military history generally was this. 
At the commencement of each month a calendar 
was printed and issued to every man for that month, 
giving all events of interest which had happened 



CULTIVATING INTELLIGENCE 113 

to the regiment during its career in that month. 
Taking haphazard the calendar for October, the 
following incidents occur. 

These I enumerate here without going into detail 
as given in the copy issued to the regiment : 

Oct. 1 710. The regiment was employed in cover- 
ing the siege of Mons till its surrender on the 20th 
October. 

Oct. 1796. The regiment proceeded to Ireland 
to suppress Rebellion, the French being prepared to 
assist the Irish. 

Oct. 1812. The regiment covered the retreat of 
General Hill's column from Burgos, etc. 

Oct. 1816. The King of the Belgians appointed 
Colonel. 

Oct. 1854. The regiment landed in the Crimea 
and took part in the charge of the heavy brigade 
at Balaclava on the 25th. 

Oct. 1893. Regiment landed in India. 

Before undertaking a long march in India to 
attend manoeuvres, or on change of station, each man 
was supplied with a leaflet giving an account of the 
country through which the march would take him, 
giving its history, especially from the military point 
of view, with descriptions of any battles and events 
leading up to them which would be of interest to 
the reader. The dates and distances of the different 
marches day by day were also given for their 
information. 

Sir Baker Russell used to say that the duty of 
cavalry was to look smart in time of peace and to 
get killed in war. We hear from time to time that 
modern conditions of war render cavalry obsolete ; 
yet each new campaign proves the contrary. Sir 

I 



114 HOW INDIA DEVELOPS CHARACTER 
Bindon Blood, although he had not served in the 
cavalry himself, was broad-minded enough to recog- 
nise value in that force, and in forming his columns 
for fighting over the Malakand Pass he insisted on 
having a certain proportion of cavalry with him, and, 
although there was much opposition and criticism 
of the idea, he showed the wisdom of his prevision. 
At a critical period of the fighting he was able to 
deliver an unexpected charge of cavalry upon these 
mountain warriors, who had never seen any number 
of horsemen before, and the effects were very far- 
reaching. It was both refreshing and encouraging 
to see the General, after having thus used cavalry 
on active service, coming out in peace time to watch 
that arm at its drills and training, in order that he 
might himself improve his knowledge of the details 
of its work. It is not every infantry general who 
would take the trouble to do this. 

His inspection of a regiment was of a far more 
practical type than was customary in the old days. 
Formerly it would have been thought unfair to a 
regiment to inspect it without first sending a definite 
programme of all that the General intended to see 
during his annual inspection of the corps and its 
barracks. This programme, which I actually re- 
member as a printed one, was handed to the regi- 
ment weeks beforehand, so that everybody had ample 
opportunity for working up and rehearsing his 
own particular share in the demonstration of the 
great day. Everything had to be spick and span, 
horses had a good drink of water the last thing before 
the General came round, in order to fill up the hollows 
in their flanks, every subaltern had his card on which 
the Sergeant-major had noted the different items 



A TRAP FOR CATCHING GENERALS 115 

of information about which the General was likely 
to ask questions. It was certain always that the 
General would ask the price of one or other article 
of the soldier's kit. It was said of one subaltern that 
in reply to the General's question : " How much does 
a towel cost ? " the poor boy, utterly at sea, suggested 
four shillings. The General stormed out : "Do 
you pay four shillings yourself ? " and the subaltern, 
quick to see some error, hurriedly ejaculated : " Yes, 
sir, four shillings — a dozen." 

As a subaltern of experience and observation I 
very soon realised in the course of a few inspections 
that a General felt bound to find fault with something 
or other in each troop, and he would hover about until 
he could find something unsatisfactory. He would 
be glad to let off a little steam over that, and then 
to go off elsewhere. So I made it my business to 
oblige him, and though I had things as good as could 
be where it was essential, 1 took care to have a dirty 
stable lantern where the General could not miss 
seeing it. He would jump to this at once. " What's 
this ? Just look at that. I have never seen such a 
filthy, disgraceful sight in all my life. Aren't you 
ashamed of it yourself, sir ? Your horses are in 
good condition, your men are smart and clean, 
your stables are in good order. I'm surprised that 
you should allow such a thing as this dirty lantern 
to be here. I am surprised ; it just spoils what 
would otherwise be a very good troop." And with 
that he would strut off to try and find fault with the 
next troop, outwardly fuming, but inwardly pleased 
that he had discovered something wrong, and which 
when he came to put it on paper appeared too silly 
for serious notice. 



n6 HOW INDIA DEVELOPS CHARACTER 

You hear varied opinions about India as a place 
for women. Most men will tell you it is no place 
for ladies ; many of the ladies themselves will tell 
you it is a delightful country. One thing is certain — 
they cannot remain on the Plains in the hot weather. 
They have, therefore, to leave their husbands at 
their duty with their regiments, or in their offices, 
while they flock to the hill-stations and start addi- 
tional homes in the cooler climate. There they can 
be extremely useful to their mankind, because, when- 
ever a married man wants a little leave, it needs but 
a telegram from his wife in the hills to say that she 
is desperately ill, and his senior officer cannot well 
refuse to let him go. When some of the unhappy 
single officers have seen themselves done out of their 
leave in this way, and have had to do duty for their 
married comrades, they eventually get driven in 
self-defence to take a wife themselves, and that is 
another reason why India is a good country for 
ladies — from their point of view. 

Of course we in England know that the ladies 
in India, unlike those at home, are entirely given 
up to frivolity and scandal ; we are perfectly sure 
of that, just as sure of it as was that prelate who, 
on the voyage out to take over his see in India, wrote 
an encyclical, or whatever it is called, to his future 
subjects, telling them that they must at once put 
a stop to all their former immorality ! He was rather 
surprised to find himself coldly received, and his 
sermons not well attended. It is possible that he 
did not stay long enough in the country to realise 
that society was no worse in India than anywhere 
else, possibly rather the other way, because troubles 
come more frequently there, home is further away, 



WOMEN AND THE BOY SCOUTS 117 
and dangers are closer at hand. These facts pro- 
mote stronger sympathies, more lasting friendships 
and greater personal pluck and self-sacrifice than 
elsewhere, among women as among men. I do not 
say that there are no frivolities, no back-bitings, no 
tea-table talk, because no doubt these do exist, but 
to nothing like the extent that some people would 
make out. 

The greatest complaint in the country amongst 
the women is that there is so little for them to do, 
their occupations and amusements are necessarily 
limited by climate and locality, and it seems to an 
outsider that their main object in life is to get all the 
pleasure they can out of theatricals, dances, and 
picnics, without any serious aim in their occupation. 
Still, if one could look below the surface, there is 
much good work going on as well. Soldiers' wives and 
children and the men in hospital are the care of the 
better class of officers' wives ; while devoted women 
doctors and teachers are doing an enormous amount 
behind the zenana screens to educate and bring 
out the native ladies to be more of a power in the 
land, and there is no doubt that their work is begin- 
ning to tell and will tell more widely in the next 
generation or two. 

A new occupation also has lately started, for- 
tunately for me, in a direction in which I have a say 
personally, and that is in the development of the 
Boy Scout Movement. This at first glance would 
appear to be entirely men's work ; but, as we find 
in England, there are many centres in which there 
are plenty of boys but no men to take them in hand. 
The ladies have come forward and proved themselves 
most able organisers and instructors of scouting 



n8 HOW INDIA DEVELOPS CHARACTER 
work, and their field in this direction is now enlarged 
by the institution of the Wolf Cubs, or branch of 
Junior Scouts for small boys of from nine to eleven, 
who are more particularly amenable to instruction 
by ladies. Also the Girl Guides have now made a 
great start in India, and promise to exercise a most 
valuable influence in the education of girls in that 
country. The principles on which they are trained 
are very much the same as those which guide the 
education of the Boy Scouts, but the details are those 
which apply to womanhood, in the shape of nursing 
and housekeeping, and the many details connected 
therewith. 

In these directions there is great scope for active 
and enterprising women, where their time will be 
well spent in doing a national work instead of in 
loafing and frivolity. What is to be the future of 
the native women, when once they come to the fore 
after being educated by their Western sisters, is 
a very big problem. The possibilities before them are 
very great, for they are naturally adaptable and 
quick to learn. They have, moreover, pluck and 
devotion equal to that of any other race, if we can 
judge by the instances which have made their 
reputation in history, in spite of the bonds which 
have been so tightly drawn round them in the past. 
I will merely quote two out of the many which 
could be cited. 

When the Sikhs were fighting against us in 1846 
they were under the rule of a queen, the Rani 
Jindan. She was a very strong lady politically, 
and she had a notion that her great rival in power 
was her own army, which was growing a bit too 
strong for her. She therefore rather welcomed the 



AN AMAZON'S ANGER 119 

chance of its suffering at the hands of the British, 
so she took care not to equip it too well. Just before 
the battle of Sobraon the Sikhs, realising that they 
were becoming inefficient from want of food and 
ammunition, sent a deputation to Lahore, where the 
Rani then was, to address her on the subject. She 
received the deputation in the great hall ; she herself 
remained behind a screen, as was the custom for 
ladies, while their spokesman represented their 
difficulties. When he was but half-way through his 
speech she slipped off her petticoat and, rolling it 
up in a ball, hurled it amongst the astonished deputa- 
tion, accompanied by a torrent of abuse, telling them 
to " get out and take to wearing petticoats them- 
selves, as they were nothing better than a pack of 
old women, and that if they were afraid to fight she 
would go and lead the army herself." This so 
roused them that they gave the equivalent to three 
cheers and told her they would hammer the English 
somehow, even without any food or ammunition. 
And they went back — and got hammered. 

The other case was that of the wife of Dhyan 
Singh, as recorded by Colonel Alexander Gardner. 
This old warrior, who was at the time an officer in 
the Sikh Army, describes how Rajah Dhyan Singh 
was treacherously murdered by Lehna Singh and 
Ajit Singh. Dhyan's wife was the daughter of the 
Rajput Chief of Pathankot. When she heard of 
the death of her husband, she vowed that she 
would be burnt on a funeral pyre, and, though a 
very young girl, she showed no hesitation about 
doing so ; but said that before she became sati, that 
is, a self -immolated widow, she would like to have the 
heads of Lehna Singh and Ajit Singh, the murderers. 



120 HOW INDIA DEVELOPS CHARACTER 

Colonel Gardner says in the simplest way : "I 
myself laid their heads at the feet of Dhyan Singh's 
corpse that evening The sati of his widow then took 
place, and seldom if ever have I been so powerfully 
affected as at the self-immolation of the gentle and 
lovely girl, whose love for her husband passed all 
bounds. During the day, while inciting the army 
to avenge her husband's murder, she had appeared 
in public before the soldiers, discarding the seclusion 
of a lifetime. When his murderers had been slain 
she gave directions as to the disposition of his pro- 
perty with a stoicism and self-possession to which 
no one beside her could lay claim. She thanked 
her brave avengers and declared that she would tell 
of their good deed to her husband when in heaven. 
There was nothing left for her, she said, but to join 
him." There was a little girl of nine or ten present 
at the scene who was passionately fond of the mur- 
dered rajah. She tried to get upon the pyre with the 
young widow, but was prevented by the onlookers, 
whereupon she ran away to the battlements of the 
city and threw herself from them. Colonel Gardner 
writes : " We picked her up more dead than alive, 
and the beautiful devotee seated on the pyre con- 
sented to take the child in her lap to share her doom. 
She placed her husband's diamond egret in her 
turban and she then fastened it with her own hands 
in the turban of her step-son, Hera Singh ; then 
smiling on those around she lit the pyre, the flames 
of which glistened on the arms and accoutrements, 
and even, it seemed to me, on the swimming eyes 
of the soldiers. So perished the widow of Dhyan 
Singh, together with thirteen of her female slaves." 
I always regret that when I first went to India I did 





w 



$y> 



s^ 



>*-» 



A HINDU TEMPLE 



A ROMANCE 121 

not get the opportunity of seeing Colonel Alexander 
Gardner, who died shortly afterwards in Srinagar, 
and was buried in the British cemetery at Sialkote". 
He was a wonderful character. In his old age, 
at ninety-three, he was as upright as a ramrod and 
stood six feet four in his stockings. He spoke 
English with some difficulty, having spent practically 
all his life in Afghanistan and Northern India, and 
when he spoke it was with a strong Scottish accent. 
He had gone as a boy sailor to the coast of Asia 
Minor, had sought adventures ashore and had thence 
drifted into Persia, where he took service as a 
soldier and gradually established himself as a man 
of standing and authority. Then he became an 
Afghan and married under romantic circumstances. 

He had been told off with some of his horsemen 
to capture a great lady of a political rival's family, 
and was successful only after a desperate fight 
extending over many miles. He was specially told 
off to take charge of the lady during the escape from 
her would-be rescuers, and as he rode alongside her 
camel he noticed a very beautiful girl who was her 
companion, and at the end of the enterprise he asked 
for this girl as his wife in return for his services on 
the occasion. It turned out a very happy marriage 
for* the time that it lasted. 

He was continually employed in forays and border 
wars and saw an immense amount of fighting. One 
time when away from his fortified home, engaged 
in one of these raids, he received a message recalling 
him to his chief, who was being hard pressed by 
enemies. He reached his chief just in time to find 
him surrounded by the enemy, with only twelve 
survivors left of his bodyguard, with whom he was 



122 HOW INDIA DEVELOPS CHARACTER 

trying to cut his way through. Gardner succeeded 
in reaching him and rescuing him. But his chief 
told him with a stony countenance that his own fort 
had been taken by the enemy and his wife and baby 
murdered. Gardner stated that he felt a stern 
pleasure when, on reaching his home, he saw that 
the number of dead enemies far exceeded that of 
the defenders ; but these had all been slain to a man, 
with one exception. An old priest had endeavoured 
to save the child, but had all his fingers cut off and 
his arm nearly severed by a scimitar in doing so. 

Gardner then migrated to the Punjab and joined 
the service of the great Sikh leader Ranjit Singh, 
and was a General in the Sikh army when they were 
fighting against us at Sobraon, but was not in the 
field himself, being employed at Lahore in command 
of the reserves. At that time there were no less than 
forty-two European officers in the service of Ranjit 
Singh. Gardner's knowledge of the inner life of 
the Indians was probably unrivalled by that of any 
other white man, and equally his experience in 
actual fighting in the field. He bore the scars of 
some twenty wounds on his body, and owing to a 
severe wound in his throat he carried a pair of iron 
pincers with which he had to hold his neck whenever 
he wanted to swallow or to drink. 




CHAPTER VIII 

WHEN THE TRIBES ARE OUT 

The Afghan War — The Great March — Ordered up to 
Kandahar — A Warlike Atmosphere — The Expedition of 
1842 — The Camel and His Ways — Kandahar — A 
Dangerous City — Theatricals Under Difficulties — A 
Serious Mistake — Afghan Nerve — Attacked by Ghazis 
— The Crack of Doom — The Field of Maiwand — A 
Broken Square — A Heroic Chaplain — A Narrow Escape 

IN India every star pales before the sun of war. 
It is scarcely realised, yet it is none the less 
a fact, that there was hardly a single year 
throughout the long reign of Queen Victoria in which 
there was not war in some form in one part or 
another of Her Majesty's empire. 

If no other quarter was able to supply it the 
North- West Frontier of India generally managed to 
have one on hand. Pigsticking, big-game shooting, 
polo, theatricals ; all are forgotten when the Tribes 
are out and the excitement of war is upon the land. 
The hours are then occupied in speculating as to who 
will get staff-appointments, what regiments will be 
ordered to the front and, tragedy of tragedies, who 
will be left behind. 

In 1880 we were at war with the Afghans under 
Ayub Khan. It happened this way. Owing to 
supposed machinations of the Russians with the 
Ameer of Afghanistan, an expedition was sent to 
Kabul in November 1878. This force passed through 

123 



124 WHEN THE TRIBES ARE OUT 

the Khyber Pass and took up its position at Jelalabad 
and other places on the road to Kabul. At the same 
time Sir Donald Stewart marched a force through 
the Bolan Pass into Baluchistan and seized 
Kandahar. Sir Frederick (now Earl) Roberts, 
with a third force, marched up into the Kuram 
valley and on into Afghanistan, defeating the 
Afghan troops at Paiwar Kotal. 

Under these defeats the Ameer Shere Ali fled the 
country and died soon afterwards. He was succeeded 
by his son, Yakub Khan, who then made terms with 
the British, whose troops left the country, while 
Major Cavagnari was installed as British Resident 
at Kabul. A few months later this officer and his 
staff were massacred, whereupon a fresh expedition 
was sent into Afghanistan under Sir Frederick 
Roberts who, after defeating the Afghans at Charasia, 
took the city of Kabul and captured Yakub Khan. 
His force was then cut off by a rising of the Afghans ; 
but was relieved by Sir Donald Stewart from 
Kandahar. 

Abdurrahman was now made Ameer (1880) on 
condition that he remained an ally of the British ; 
but Ayub Khan, a son of the late Ameer, had 
meantime raised a force in Persia and advanced from 
Herat against Kandahar. A British force, con- 
sisting of about 2,500 British and native troops 
under General Burrows, went out to oppose him. 
They met near Maiwand in a heavy mist and our 
force was surrounded and defeated with heavy loss. 
In this fight 961 of our officers and men were killed 
and 168 were wounded or missing. 

Kandahar was then besieged by the Afghans, and 
two columns were sent to its relief, one under Sir 



THE AFGHAN WAR 125 

Frederick Roberts from Kabul, the other from India 
under General Phayre. The 13th Hussars were 
ordered from Lucknow to join the latter force and, 
together with the 78th Highlanders, formed its rear 
guard as it entered Afghanistan through Baluchistan. 
Sir Frederick Roberts' force of 10,000 men, by a 



AFGHANISTAN 




INDIA 



INDIAN 



Sketch map of the Afghanistan campaign. 

rapid march of 313 miles from Kabul through the 
mountains, which has become famous, won the race 
and attacked and defeated the Afghans with heavy 
loss. This practically ended the war. Our force, 
marching" up through the difficult Bolan Pass and 
over the Kojak range, reached Kandahar after it was 
all over. 

I had just then returned to India from sick-leave 
only to discover on my arrival at Lucknow that the 
regiment had already a few days previously gone on 
to the front. I find in my diary the following entry 



126 WHEN THE TRIBES ARE OUT 
(which leads me to think that I was in those days a 
fairly callous beggar) : 

" Here's a jolly lark ! A telegram came at twelve 
last night ordering me to get two chargers and to go 
up to Kandahar immediately, so I am off to-morrow. 
To-day I am busy fitting out with warm clothes, 
horses, camp equipment, etc." 

That day a new doctor had arrived at Lucknow 
for the regiment, and as I was the only officer there 
he reported himself to me. He was accompanied 
by a lad of apparently about fourteen. After some 
conversation, in the course of which he agreed to join 
me in my journey to overtake the regiment, I 
asked : " What will you do with your son ? ,; 
" My son ? This is not my son. This is an officer 
who has come to join the 13th." And so the youth 
turned out to be McLaren, who on account of his 
appearance was fated ever afterwards to be called 
" the Boy." 

We arranged to start without delay and next day 
saw us en route by train for the North- West Frontier. 

McLaren had no horses but trusted to getting 
some at Lahore, where we stopped a day ; and he 
picked up two. Next day we went on by train to 
Multan and thence up the new Kandahar line as far 
as Sibi, the base of supplies for Afghanistan. The 
train simply stopped in the middle of the desert 
among a heap of baggage, bales of clothes, thousands 
of ponies, camels, mules, and millions of flies, etc. 
There were no houses, simply sand and rocks — and 
flies. In fact, the natives say of it : " When God 
had made Hell He found it was not bad enough, so 
He made Sibi — and added flies." 

Here we pitched our tent and had rations served 



SIGNS OF WAR 127 

out to us, just the same as to the men. Next day 
we went on to the end of the temporary line to the 
foot of the mountains, Pirchowkee. Here the rail- 
way ended, no station or anything ; we simply got 
out of the train, saddled our horses, and rode to camp 
a little way off, where transport ponies were supplied, 
seven between two of us. We slept the night there 
in a shed and then packed our things on to the 
ponies, ourselves on to our horses, and started the 
march early in the morning. We went through 
mountains, along the course of a river which we 
crossed twelve times that day in twelve miles, and 
stopped for the night at a " station," i.e., three 
tents and a food store. 

For six days we marched, mainly along the gorge 
through which the river ran, over boulders, sand, and 
stones all the way. It was a jolly life, although the 
scenery generally was beastly — arid rocks and 
boulders. For the last march the road was perfectly 
straight for eighteen miles, over white boulders in 
the glaring sun, with a low ridge of mountains five 
miles away on either side, and not a sight of vegeta- 
tion all the time. 

Here we began to get into touch with active service. 
For the first time we saw everybody walking about 
with revolvers on. We always carried them. At 
the first camp we stopped at, some friendly natives 
came in all covered with wounds which they had just 
got from some Afghans, and we passed another 
wounded man on the road. We were told that in 
going up the road the 13th found the bodies of three 
men with their hands tied and their throats cut. 

I met two fellows who said that they thought 1 
might catch the regiment up at Quetta if I hurried, 



128 WHEN THE TRIBES ARE OUT 
so I left my pals (Fraser our doctor, Moore our 
"vet." and McLaren, all going to join the 13th), 
and went on with two horses and one pony. I 
shoved a pair of panniers on " Clown," my second 
charger, in which were my clothes and the horses' 
blankets, and I put my tent and bedding on the pony, 
and myself, Jock, and regimental saddle on " Hag- 
arene," and with my bearer and one syce I started 
off. I left these to come over as best they could, and 
I plugged on in double marches, doing forty-four 
miles in two days over very bad ground, which 
brought me to Quetta. The pony caved in on the 
way and did not get in. 

To my great disappointment I found that the 
regiment had been gone three days and that it also 
had been doing double marches. As it would be 
impossible to catch it up, I remained at Quetta for a 
few days and the other fellows joined me on the 
following day. It was great fun, that ride by my- 
self — twenty miles of it was across sandy desert and 
I met several small parties of Afghans, some of them 
armed. They do not go for Europeans at all, but 
still I watched their shadows after we had passed 
each other to make sure that they did not come at me 
from behind and stick me, as they would have done 
had they been Ghazis. After Quetta, we were not 
allowed to travel alone, as that was the enemy's 
country, and every party had sent with it an escort 
of native cavalry. 

The 9th Lancers arrived from Kandahar whilst we 
were at Quetta, twelve days' march distant. They 
had been up there two years on service and were a 
very ragged-looking crew in consequence, but fine 
and healthy. They had met the 13th and camped 



THE CAMEL AFTER DEATH 129 
together for one night, and I believe it was a very- 
wonderful night for both ! We had in our mess 
champagne and glasses, neither of which they had 
seen for years, and I believe they made the most of 
the occasion, as they said they did. Also our band 
played to them, and they had not heard a band for a 
long time, and our men groomed their horses for 
them because the two regiments were old friends. 

It was interesting at Quetta to see reminders of 
the former expedition of 1842 in the shape of mud 
platforms on which the tents of the forts used to 
stand. Evidently they did themselves well in the 
way of number and size of tents, and in placing them 
high above the surrounding ground and fitting them 
with good fire-places and chimneys. 

By the time we were ready to leave Quetta, our 
party had grown to seven, together with half a dozen 
men of the 13th who had been left behind with fever. 
We had awful work to get over the Kojak, a high 
range of mountians which divides British territory 
from Afghanistan. We had eleven bullock-carts, 
five ponies and mules, and twelve camels. The steep 
rough road was a tremendous strain on all the 
animals, especially the camels, when the road was at 
all wet. Their feet seem to slip in all directions and 
they were very apt to split themselves by their legs 
sliding apart. 

An' when 'e comes to greasy ground 'e splits 'isself in two. 

The consequence was dead camels on either side of 
the road all the way along and a splendid aroma. I 
estimated that there was a dead camel to every yard 
of road over that pass, and climbing up it in a hurry 
one was afraid to pant for fear of sucking in the awful 

K 



130 WHEN THE TRIBES ARE OUT 
smell. We should never have got over the pass had 
we not met with a company of native infantry and a 
lot of tame Afghans, whom we set to work to haul up 
the carts. When we were over, the going down the 
other side was just as bad, the road being terribly 
steep and zig-zagging down the precipice. The carts 
had ropes behind with men hanging on to prevent 
them from running away down hill and going over 
the cliff instead of turning at the corners. We got 
into camp long after dark, in a storm of sleet, and 
had to keep a pretty good look-out for Afghan 
thieves, who were all round trying to steal rifles if 
they got a chance. 

Kandahar was to me a wonderfully interesting 
place, but not quite so large as I had expected. 
It was a city of flat-roofed houses and narrow alleys 
closely bottled-up by huge grey walls with towers. 
We quartered at a place called Kokoran, a village 
about seven miles to the front of Kandahar. It was 
much better being there, as we were in wild open 
country where it was comparatively healthy. In 
Kandahar there was a good deal of sickness ; the 
nth Devonshire Regiment lost eighty-five men in 
less than three months and the 78th Highlanders 
also lost a great number. At one place on the march 
where they had camped we saw written up on the 
rocks, " Kilts for sale here," meaning that a lot of 
men had died. The ground round about us was the 
scene of Lord Roberts' fight when he relieved 
Kandahar a few months previously. The Afghans 
after their defeat fled up into the neighbouring 
mountains and hid in the caves. One of the Ghoorka 
regiments on their own initiative followed them and 
got right away from their officers, and nothing was 



THE DANGERS OF KANDAHAR 131 
known of them until a good many hours later, when 
a few came in to Kandahar to ask for food and 
ammunition for the rest, as they had marked all 
the Afghans down into different caves and were 
quietly waiting for them to come out again to be 
killed. 

One day our doctor picked up a visiting-card of 
McLean's, the man who was a prisoner in Ayub 
Khan's camp and was there murdered. He found 
the card near a well-hole out in the fields, probably 
where he had taken refuge and been captured. 

Kandahar itself, which I visited many times, was 
a strange place and more than a trifle dangerous. All 
the officers and men went about armed, most 
officers carrying a hog-spear, some of them revolvers. 
I had a long stout stick with a lanyard to it, and a 
beautiful smile which I expected would disarm any- 
body ! But amongst the crowd there were very 
often fanatics or Ghazis who were only too anxious 
to stick their knives into a European, as they 
believed that if they were then killed in consequence 
of their act they would go straight to Heaven. 

A stable in the city containing all the ordnance and 
commissariat stores was covered thickly with shot- 
marks received during the siege. The sand-bags 
were still up on the ramparts, and everywhere were 
to be seen signs of the fighting that had so recently 
taken place. Outside the main gate was a rough 
gallows where Ghazis were strung up every few 
days. All the soldiers had to carry revolvers or 
bayonets when they went for a stroll. Even when a 
man was going only ten yards from the barrack-room 
to' get water from the stream he would carry a drawn 
bayonet in his hand. It was a very necessary 



132 WHEN THE TRIBES ARE OUT 
precaution, as the fanatics generally pounced on 
them without warning. 

One day the sentry of the main gate was stabbed 
in the back by a Ghazi and killed on the spot. The 
Ghazi then walked into the guard-room, threw his 
blood-stained knife on the table and gave himself 
up to be hanged. The sentries were all doubled in 
consequence and worked back to back. The sentries 
at Kokoran, instead of carrying their carbines, 
carried drawn swords as being more handy for a 
hand-to-hand contest. We got up a small theatrical 
performance, and it was amusing to see the men going 
to rehearsal just outside the fortified buildings in 
which we lived, each man carrying his sword in his 
hand. The swords were stuck into the ground to 
mark out the limits of our stage, and at the same time 
be handy in case of attack. 

When they propose to go to Heaven the Ghazis 
dress themselves in clean white clothes and refuse to 
take food or to cut their hair until they have suc- 
ceeded in killing an unbeliever. It is then best for 
them to get killed themselves before they have time 
to meet with temptation, and to commit further sins. 
A Ghazi came hovering round our camp one day, but, 
failing to find a white man unprepared for his rush, 
he stabbed one of our native followers, believing him 
to be a native Christian. He then gave himself up, 
and was tried and condemned to death. He was 
asked why he had killed one of his own religion. 
The news that he had done so horrified him, and he 
asked if he might be released, as it was all a mistake, 
and he would have every chance now of going to the 
wrong place. On the occasion of his execution 
another man was to be hanged, a Hindu native 



AT THE CRACK OF THE WHIP 133 
follower who had murdered an Afghan woman. 
When they were on the scaffold some of the supports 
gave way and the whole thing collapsed before the 
execution had been completed. So the two prisoners 
were put on one side while the scaffolding was again 
erected. Then the difference of character between 
the two men showed itself. The Afghan, though bleed- 
ing from a wound in the head incurred in the fall, 
started to work in helping to re-build the gallows, 
while the Hindu cowered in misery awaiting his end. 

At Quetta again we were bothered by Ghazis. 
On one occasion a gunner had a lucky escape. When 
walking down a native street in the bazaar there was 
a sudden flash of light on the wall alongside him. 
This gave him such a start that he involuntarily 
jumped away from it, and the next moment a big 
knife descended harmlessly over his shoulder, just 
grazing him when otherwise it would have plunged 
into his back. The Ghazi was seized before he could 
do any further harm and was afterwards hanged. 

On the occasion of his execution there were two 
others also to be hanged. Three gallows posts were 
therefore erected in the market-place, each with a 
separate drop worked by a separate man. When the 
three criminals were placed ready with the nooses 
round their necks the Commissioner directed that 
the drops should be pulled simultaneously when he 
gave the signal by cracking his hunting crop. Two of 
the executioners watched him, the other only listened 
for the crack. The Commissioner slung the lash 
round his head but failed to make the required noise, 
consequently two malefactors were at once dangling 
in the air, while the third, with the listening execu- 
tioner, still remained awaiting the fatal signal. 



134 WHEN THE TRIBES ARE OUT 

The attempts by the Ghazis on the lives of white 
men were finally put a stop to by the proclamation 
being made that any man hanged in future would 
have a dead dog buried with him ; as this would 
entirely prevent his soul getting to Heaven the murder 
of white men lost its charm for them. 

My diary tells me that I was entirely opposed to 
the authorities upon the question of making a fuss 
about Afghanistan. With all the assurance of a 
subaltern I wrote : 

" I do not know what is the good of keeping this 
country ; it is nearly all a howling desert, with a little 
cultivation along the few river banks. However, 
personally, I do not mind how long they keep it, it 
is a jolly climate. These Afghans are awful-looking 
sportsmen, fine big fellows with great hooked noses 
and long hair, in loose white clothing, and very 
murderous. Since we have been here six of our 
native servants have disappeared and have never 
been seen again. One of them was the head cook 
of our mess ; we suspected a village near by of 
murdering him, for he went to buy eggs, so we sent a 
squadron out there with the political officer and they 
searched the place, but of course found no signs of 
the old boy ; if they had they would have probably 
hanged some of the villagers and burned the place." 

I had a very interesting three days' outing at 
Maiwand with a reconnoitring squadron. With us 
went General Wilkinson, Colonel St. John, and 
several other swells. A few miles from Kokoran we 
came across the marks of gun wheels where our guns 
had made their escape from the massacre. They 
had come round the end of a spur of mountains, which 
made rather a long detour, and it was said that the 



THE FIELD OF MAIWAND 135 

Afghans had come a shorter cut through the moun- 
tains and so harassed their retreat. Therefore we 
made a bee line for the mountains to see if we could 
discover the short cut, and before long we came on 
wheel marks, which we afterwards discovered were 
those of Ayub Khan's guns. Following these up 
we came to a pass in the mountains which the 










Plan of the battle of MaiwandS 



Afghans had used, but of which our people had no 
knowledge. It was a wonderfully picturesque, steep, 
rocky gorge, and as we passed through it we could 
see a number of ibex outlined on the cliffs above us 
watching our progress. The battlefield was a big, 
open, sandy and stony plain, and we camped about a 
mile from it. 

Everything was very much as it had been left after 
the fight. Any amount of dead horses were lying 
about, mummified by the sun and dry air. There 
had been no rain and apparently very little wind 



136 WHEN THE TRIBES ARE OUT 

since the battle was fought, and the footmarks and 
wheel tracks were perfectly clear in every direction. 
Lines of empty cartridge cases showed where the 
heaviest fighting had taken place : wheel-tracks and 
hoof-marks showed where the guns had moved, dead 
camels and mules showed the line of the baggage 
train. Dead men lay in all directions ; most of them 
had been hurriedly buried, but in many cases the 
graves had been dug open again by jackals. Clothes, 
accoutrements, preserved food, etc., were strewn all 
over the place. In one spot the whole of an Afghan 
gun team, six white horses with pink-dyed tails, had 
been killed in a heap by one of our shells. 

The British brigade in marching early in the 
morning had sent out a reconnoitring party to visit 
the only watering place on the desert to the westward, 
and this patrol had returned saying there were no 
enemy there. It was therefore at once assumed that 
no enemy were in the neighbourhood, but, as sub- 
sequently transpired, the patrol had not been to the 
right place and the enemy were there all the time. 
That morning a heavy mist hung over the plain 
and the Afghan army had crossed just in front of the 
advance of the brigade, neither party being aware 
of the other's presence. Our advance guard, seeing 
a few men retiring into the mist, had fired after them. 
This had brought the Afghans back to attack us. 

Unknown to the British a deep ravine ran in a 
horse-shoe form almost entirely round the spot on 
which the brigade was standing. The brigade formed 
a square to receive the attack, expecting to see the 
enemy coming across the open, instead of which the 
Afghans poured down the nullah by thousands un- 
seen, and then suddenly made their attack from three 



THE GALLANT BERKSHIRES 137 
sides at once. Some Bombay cavalry, ordered out 
to charge them, swerved under their attack and 
charged into the rear of our own men, and the 
native infantry broke and ran with them through 
the ranks of the Berkshire Regiment, the 66th. 
These stuck to their post as well as they could but 
were driven back, and then held one position after 
another to cover the retreat of the remainder, but 
in the end were practically wiped out in doing so. 
They made their last stand at a long, low mud wall 
and ditch. It was at this spot that one of the men 
waved his hand cheerily to the Horse Artillery 
getting their guns away, and cried that historic 
farewell : " Good luck to you. It's all up with the 
bally old Berkshires ! " They were all killed here, 
and the shortest way of burying them was to throw 
down the wall on the top of them. 

Sir Oliver St. John was present at the fight and 
succeeded in getting away, splendidly helped by a 
great Afghan orderly. This man, finding that his 
master's collie dog was missing when they were in 
full flight, turned back to the scene of the fight and 
recovered the dog and brought him with them. The 
Roman Catholic chaplain to the troops also behaved 
with conspicuous gallantry, carrying on his back a 
big skin of water and helping the wounded with it. 
He would probably never have escaped himself had 
not some gunners seized him and put him on to one 
of their limbers, which was making its way to the 
rear. 

I had to make two maps of the battlefield for 
General Wilkinson and the Commander-in-Chief. 
The Colonel also asked me to do one for him to send 
to Sir Garnet Wolseley. I brought back some 



138 WHEN THE TRIBES ARE OUT 

mementos from the battlefield, a shell, also the 
hoof of a horse of E. Battery Royal Horse Artillery 
— he belonged to the one gun which went to the 
front and fired on the Afghan rear guard and so 
began the battle. I have also a belt stained with 
blood and a leaf out of Sir Garnet Wolseley's pocket- 
book, which was found close by one of the officers. 




After kicking horse: "You've broke my toe, 
you b iron-gutted beggar." 



CHAPTER IX 

THE AFTERMATH OF WAR 

The Image of War — Patrols and Picnics — A Curious 
Superstition — Jock Fights a Wild Cat — Afghan Depreda- 
tions — Relics of Alexander the Great — Camp Rumours 
— Abdurrahman Waits — The Horses Stampede — A 
Subaltern's Opinion of the Government — A Study in 
Contrasts — Rifle Stealing — An Ingenious Plan — Further 
Losses — I Shoot Myself — I Hear my Death Announced 
— Digging for the Bullet — Convalescence — Stalked by 
a Leopard — A Rough and Tumble 

THE process of settling the country after war 
was like Jorrocks' fox-hunting, "the image 
of war with only twenty per cent, of its 
danger ! " It was the best possible form of military 
training for us youngsters ; it taught us by actual 
practice in the field rather than through the tedium 
of barrack-square instruction all the dodges and all 
the responsibilities of soldier-craft ; it put us into 
closest touch and comradeship with our men, a big 
step to successful work in campaigning ; and it 
showed us that the Drill Book is not a fetish that will 
carry you through every difficulty if you only adhere 
blindly to its letter, but is rather a statement of 
general principles which will guide you aright if you 
appreciate their spirit ; that Tactics are after all not 
so much a science as the application of common- 
sense to the situation. 
I found myself thoroughly happy in the life I was 

139 



140 THE AFTERMATH OF WAR 

leading. " I enjoy this business awfully, there is 
always something to do," I wrote in my diary. 
There was indeed no lack of occupation. One day 
we would be hunting up one of the bands of robbers 
in an adjacent pass, only to find that " the brutes 
had gone," as I phrased it, so I made a map of the 
pass for Sir Baker instead. Another day I would be 
sent out reconnoitring with a troop ; or enjoying 
a picnic as if war were a thing unheard of ; a third 
would find me in charge of an in-lying picket, which 
meant sitting all ready in my tent, with my horse 
saddled the whole day and my troop the same, ready 
to turn out and to march within two minutes of the 
alarm. Then at dusk we would go out of camp about 
a mile, post vedettes and send out patrols every hour 
throughout the night to examine the neighbourhood. 
We would take two tents with us but keep dressed 
with our horses saddled, all ready to turn out. At 
daybreak we would move out to examine a post 
some five miles off and then back to camp. Some- 
times it was so cold at night that instead of putting 
up the tent our men would prefer to roll themselves 
up in it on the ground. They had to wear Balaclava 
caps, that is, knitted night-caps which came down 
all over their head and neck, with eye-holes to look 
out from. We succeeded in getting a great deal 
of experience, as we were constantly expecting 
attacks, and the long and bitterly cold nights on 
outpost duty hardened us thoroughly. 

At Kokoran we had some pretty bad weather, 
first in the shape of heavy snow ; but living in 
tents was not so bad as we had expected because, by 
building round our tent a low wall of mud bricks 
about two feet high, and making a fire-place at the 






STUNNED BY HAIL-STONES 141 

end, one kept very warm in spite of the cold weather 
outside. Then came gales, and downpours of rain 
and sleet which meant much discomfort for us living 
in the open. On one occasion our native grass- 
cutters were caught in a kind of blizzard and one of 




" If anybody ever talks to me again about the honour and glory of 
soldiering, I'll be b y rude to him." 

them was stunned by hail-stones and frozen to 
death. I have not forgotten his return to the 
regiment. He was brought in by his fellows across 
the back of a pony, and one of the men who had 
charge of the grass-cutters took him in his arms and 
carried him through the horse lines trying to find 
which troop he belonged to, calling out as is usual 



142 THE AFTERMATH OF WAR 

with soldiers when they have found something : 
" Does anybody own this ? " Finally, being unable 
to find an owner, he put the poor thing in a sack and 
buried him outside the camp. 

This soldier was one of the old type that are seldom 
met with nowadays, a splendid rider and swords- 
man, very smart and clean in his ways and devotedly 
loyal to his officers. With his brick-dust face and 
red hair he was just the type of British soldier that 
one likes to have with one on service. He had a 
peculiar superstition that you should never pass by a 
dead body on the right-hand side of the road, so on 
the line of march whenever he saw the corpse of a 
native — and one passed a good many of them — on the 
wrong side of the road, he would carefully dismount 
and carry or drag it across to the other side and 
deposit it there. Fortunately for him, by the time 
we returned from Afghanistan most of the remains 
had been buried, otherwise he would have had the 
trouble of doing the whole of the work over again. 

Men become curiously callous about death when on 
service. I remember one of our officers shouting 
violently for his servant, and unable to get his 
attendance. He was very angry with the absentee, 
until someone told him the man had died of cold, 
on which the officer said: "Why couldn't some- 
body have told me before instead of letting me shout 
myself hoarse ? Where is he now ? " He found the 
poor body being used by his fellow servants as a 
saddle rack on which to clean their saddles until it 
was time to take him out to be buried. 

My little dog Jock was a great comfort and 
companion to me at this time, and he distinguished 
himself at Maiwand by having a fight with a wild 



THE BOTTOMLESS PIT 143 

cat which nearly put an end to his career. He 
formed a great attachment for my charger, and 
when she was still in the riding school he used to 
trot off at her heels from the stables to the school 
and keep the same position all through her training 
lessons, faithfully following her in all her evolu- 
tions as she was walked and trotted to and fro, 
circling and turning for an hour or two in every 
direction. 

I took a lot of trouble about the horses of our 
troop, feeding up the thin ones and giving extra 
work to the fat ones, visiting them at night to see 
that they had blankets and were able to lie down, etc. 
All this took up much time but it brought its reward 
in the shape of special praise for our troop from the 
General at the inspection. 

Sometimes we would form a picnic party and I 
remember one that was nearly fatal to Jock. We 
had lunch in an orchard, but before that we climbed 
half-way up a mountain to look at a great cave there. 
This continued for some few hundred yards and 
then branched off into four passages, one of which was 
said to have no end to it. In one place they pointed 
out there was a sort of bottomless pit. Of course 
Jock ran up to see too, and, with one short squeak, 
immediately fell down into it. We gave him up as 
lost and peered over the edge to look at his mangled 
remains, when we saw him running about ten feet 
below us hunting imaginary cats. The hole in that 
part was not very deep although in one corner it 
became a well, so Jock scrambled up again out of the 
place all right, though all night he kept me awake 
with his groaning, as he had sprained both his fore- 
legs, but he soon recovered. 



144 THE AFTERMATH OF WAR 

We were hard up for news just then ; the telegraph 
had broken down, the rivers were so swollen that no 
travellers had come up lately, and about three out of 
every four mail runners seemed to get caught and 
killed by Afghans. 

One night a sentry over our transport animals 
was attacked by an Afghan with a long knife and 
was wounded in the arm ; he shot at the fellow but 
missed him. The Afghan was probably coming to 
steal a mule or camel. Several had recently been 
stolen in Kandahar. A camel and some mules had 
disappeared a few nights previously, stolen by 
Afghans from a spot from which one would have 
thought it would have been impossible to do so. 
The transport animals were herded inside the 
circular enclosure of a mud wall about seven feet 
high. The gate was barred, and the sentry walked 
round and round the place keeping a constant 
watch on it. The thieves worked it thus. One 
got over the wall with one end of a rope in his 
hand and one remained outside with the other 
end. A third got on the top of the wall and lay 
flat there with a pot of water. The two on each 
side then sawed the rope backwards and forwards 
while the top man watered the wall at that spot. 
In this way they managed to cut down through the 
wall by sawing the rope across it. Then they made 
another cut a few feet further on and knocked down 
the piece of wall between the two cuts, thus making 
a doorway through which they were able to run out 
some of the animals from inside. Of course they 
kept a good look-out for the sentry and every time 
he came by they lay low, and he had no warning 
of what they were doing until he heard the rumbling 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 145 

of the falling wall and the rattle of the hoofs of the 
animals as they were led away. 

The first intimation that we were shortly to leave 
Kandahar and return to India came to us indirectly. 
One day the price of jam went down to one rupee a 
pot, which showed that the Parsee merchants were 
expecting that we should leave soon and were selling 
off accordingly ; and they generally know things be- 
fore anybody else does. In the bazaar at Kandahar 
one of the money-changers had an old Greek coin 
lying amongst his cash, for which I gave him a rupee. 
Later I found that a very large number of such coins 
had been bought here, as they were those of Alexander 
the Great. When I was at Chakdara in 1897 a 
Greek signet ring was found while the troops were 
digging rain-trenches round their tents. This helped 
to give colour to the contention that Alexander's 
route into India was through the Swat Valley at 
the Chakdara crossing. Very little money is used 
in this part, people much prefer to barter and 
exchange things. For instance, an Afghan who had 
a pony for sale would not take rupees for it, but was 
very glad to exchange it for an English coat, waist- 
coat, and breeches. 

Rumour is nowhere busier than in camp, and we 
were always hearing of what was about to, but never 
did, happen. The following is a characteristic page 
from my diary. 

" Here's a jolly lark ! A heliogram has just come 
ordering us to be ready to march at a moment's 
notice within the next forty-eight hours, but as it was 
sent by the last rays of the setting sun, I do not 
suppose they will turn us out until to-morrow morn- 
ing at any rate. However, I have been down to my 

L 



146 THE AFTERMATH OF WAR 

troop and warned them to be ready, and my servant 
has meantime got my necessary things packed for 
two mules. The worst of it is we have no clue as to 
where we are to go ; some say it is only to Maiwand 
again to bury the dead whom we found lying about 
there last time. The General believes that we are 
going to take a certain town about seventy miles off 
where the people are said to have captured our native 
cook and refused to give him up without a ransom of 
300 rupees. We are all in great hopes that at last 
we are going to get a shot at the Afghans — the wo^rst 
of it is it looks as if it were going to snow like fits." 

Then follows the inevitable climax — or rather 
anti-climax : 

" Still here. The orders were never carried out 
after all, but we know now that we are to evacuate 
Kandahar and to return to Quetta. Report says 
that the first brigade starts in two days, if so, we 
shall start four days afterwards, being the rear 
guard. However, I am glad we are not on the march 
just now ; the mornings are fine but in the afternoon 
it pours, with thunder storms and hail. Three days 
ago it came down in sheets and hailed tremendously 
for two or three hours. We are on the side of a hill 
but in spite of that the whole place was flooded, 
about two to three feet of water in one great sheet 
carrying away the tents, etc. It also undermined 
our big outer wall, which fell in in two places, making 
a gap of about fifty yards : then in another place 
the near wall bulged so badly that we pulled it over 
with a rope. The orderly belonging to the 8th 
Bengal Cavalry, who brings out our letters from 
Kandahar here, was carried away and drowned, 
although mounted and having no regular river to 



THE LOAN OF A BONNET 147 

cross. The men's barrack-room and the native 
buildings here were flooded with water, and when 
that ran off a sea of mud was left. I saw my sergeant- 
major just now examining all the likely lumps of 
mud for one of his boots which was missing ; he 
went about with a kettle pouring water on to each 
lump as the easiest way of dissolving it and showing 
what it contained ! " 

One night I had to wear a bonnet in a piece that 
we were acting ; I had one of my old maps of the 
Maiwand battlefield and thought it would make 
good stiffening for the bonnet, so I sent it over to 
the tailor to make up. Later he told me that there 
were sergeants and other people wanting the loan of 
the bonnet after I had finished with it. At first I 
was greatly puzzled : but I discovered that it was to 
copy out the map of the battle to send home to their 
pals. 

The Artillery had a lot of ammunition for which 
they could not get carriage down country, so they 
used it up by practising battering the walls of the 
deserted city of Old Kandahar. I sent a sketch of it 
to the Graphic as " a parting shot at Kandahar." 
Abdurrahman with 5,000 men of the Afghan army 
was camped about twenty miles off waiting for us to 
clear out before he took possession of Kandahar, 
everything having been arranged peaceably by the 
political officers. 

One night towards the end of our time it blew a 
hurricane and hailed heavily. I heard the orderly 
officer being called about midnight, so I got up and 
went out with him and found that nearly all the 
horses in my troop and the next one had broken loose 
and were galloping about in the dark. A tent had 



148 THE AFTERMATH OF WAR 

blown straight up into the sky and had flown right 
over one troop and dropped in the middle of 
mine and the next, and had naturally frightened the 
horses out of their lives. They had strained at their 
head and heel ropes and, the ground being wet, had 
torn the pegs out and were rushing all over the place. 
Some of them had the sense to form up amongst the 
other horses and had remained there until fastened 
up again, others returned when the trumpeters 
sounded " Feed," but a number had galloped off into 
the country and the men had to go out to find them 
and collect them. 

All were eventually recaptured except one, A. 44, 
the horse ridden by the Regimental Sergeant-Major 
and therefore about the best in the regiment. I was 
very anxious to find this horse, so I took a long ride 
round on " Dick " to see if I could find its tracks any- 
where. I had long practised the art of tracking 
and was now able to put it to some use : also I had 
taught " Dick " among other circus tricks to stand 
alone when I left him and wait till I returned. 
These two accomplishments came in useful on this 
occasion. After some searching I came across the trail 
of a horse galloping away from the camp. I followed 
this up for two or three miles until it struck up into 
the mountains over such steep rugged ground that I 
left " Dick " standing where he was and clambered 
on foot after the runaway. After a time I spied him 
outlined against the sky, right on the top of the 
mountain, and after a long time I got to the place and 
found him standing there shivering with cold, 
apparently dazed and very badly cut about the legs 
with the iron tent peg which was still hanging on to 
his head rope. It was an awful job to get him down 



A SUBALTERN ON THE GOVERNMENT 149 
the mountain side, but at last I managed it, and was 
very pleased when I got him safely back to camp. 
The Colonel also was delighted. 

A British subaltern is apt to fall into the error of 
hasty judgment, especially where his own immediate 
affairs are concerned. A little matter of transport 
seems, if I may trust my diary, to have drawn from 
me the following uncompromising opinion of the 
ruling powers of India : 

" We are on our way down from Kandahar. The 
dirty Government sent us up here with orders to 
bring our whole kit, which means they give us 
three and a half mules for transport to each subaltern. 
Now they suddenly tell us we shall have to go back 
on a reduced scale : each mule is supposed to carry 
about 160 pounds so we came up with 560 pounds, 
and now they say we must only take 160 pounds, 
including one's tent and bedding — the tent weighs 
80 pounds and bedding about 40 — which does not 
leave much margin for three boxes of uniform, 
clothes, boots, books, horse-clothing, servants' bag- 
gage, stable gear, etc. It is not because they have 
not enough transport animals either, for the snivelling 
fiends are offering to take it down for us if we like to 
pay ! It would cost me about £16 to take down the 
things that I brought up here as far as Sibi where the 
railway begins. However, I am going to chuck 
away my old things, load up my second charger with 
baggage and buy a pony or mule of my own, and by 
so doing shall save something ; but is it not beastly 
of the Government ? " 

It was rather amusing to us to see it stated in the 
newspapers at home that the chief reason why 
Kandahar had been held so long was that the officers 



150 THE AFTERMATH OF WAR 

and men liked it so much that they were unwilling to 
leave it. As a matter of fact the opposite was the 
case. Officers and men alike were most anxious to 
get back to India out of that unhealthy desert. At 
one time, for instance, there was immense excitement 
at Kandahar because three days had passed without 
the nth Regiment losing a single man. However, the 




One of our sentries. 



balance was restored on the fourth day by five men 
dying. We of the 13th were lucky, losing only one 
man up there through pneumonia. The nth lost an 
average of one man a day all the time they were 
there, and all the other regiments lost large numbers. 
When at last we received orders to leave Kokoran 
and Kandahar the 13th was ordered to form the rear 
guard and to parade at a certain hour so as to move 
off. from Kokoran immediately in the rear of the 



A QUESTION OF ROUTE 151 

infantry, but the Colonel had told me to find out the 
best road to follow, and I found that by one particular 
short cut we could save at least two hours' marching. 
So he ordered the regiment to delay its departure 
accordingly. The General heard of this and asked 
his reason. When the Colonel gave it the General 




An Afghan sentry. 



said that his staff officers knew the country perfectly 
well and would not have given the order for parade 
for that hour had it been possible to economise time 
as he suggested. The Colonel replied more politely 
but generally to the effect that he did not care what 
the staff officers' ideas of the country were, he knew 
better and proposed to rest his men and horses until 
the last moment : and he used my short cut accord- 
ingly, and we were exactly at the right time at the 



152 THE AFTERMATH OF WAR 

appointed place. I mention this little incident 
because it was from it that I date my ultimate 
promotion at the hands of Sir Baker Russell. 

On the day we were to march from Kokoran our 
mounted sentries were relieved by those of the 
Afghan army of Abdurrahman, and it was an 
amusing contrast to see the Hussars, who for this 
occasion were dressed in full kit, relieved by rough- 
looking " catch-'em-alive-o' " warriors who while 
on duty carried umbrellas to protect themselves 
from the sun. After we had marched out some 
distance I suddenly recollected that we had left in our 
mess a coloured print from the Graphic of Millais' 
" Cherry Ripe." I somehow did not want it to fall 
into the hands of the Afghans, so I rode back and 
fetched it away with me, and for a long time after- 
wards it decorated my tent and bungalow ; so, 
accidentally, I was the last Britisher to leave Kan- 
dahar. 

The march down country was chiefly remarkable 
for the number of attempts made by the hill tribes to 
steal horses, rifles, and ammunition from the troops. 
The Afghans are wonderfully keen thieves and will 
risk anything to get a rifle or ammunition. Many of 
them come into the camp as spies, working as 
camel-men or mule-drivers. They find out how the 
arms are stowed at night and then let their friends 
outside know, and this has been the cause of many 
very clever thefts of rifles from time to time. 

In one regiment the rifles were piled up round the 
poles of the tents and then locked there by a chain 
which was passed through the trigger guard of each 
rifle and then padlocked. In the big two-pole 
tents this seemed to be an absolute safeguard, 



THIEVING EXTRAORDINARY 153 
especially with the men sleeping all round the tent 
and the entrances laced up. But the thieves got 
over the difficulty in this way. With their knives 
they cut all the tent ropes on one side of the tent and 
threw the tent over on the top of the sleeping men. 
Then, seizing the rifles underneath the canvas, they 
simply slipped them off the foot of the tent poles 
still chained together, made off with the two bundles, 
loaded them on to camels and were well away before 
the men had struggled out from under the canvas 
trap in which they found themselves. 

On another occasion in a regiment which had 
suffered from these thefts the men dug a hole under 
the floor of each tent and buried their rifles there and 
slept on the top of them, but even this precaution did 
not stop the thieves, for having found out exactly 
where the rifles were stowed they carefully and 
silently dug from outside the tent a small tunnel 
leading down to where the rifles were buried, and 
thus abstracted them without disturbing the men 
sleeping above them. 

Having seen in South Africa the way of stopping 
diamonds from being stolen by the diamond- thieves, 
which was by lighting up the whole place brilliantly 
at night, I used the same principle when marching 
with my regiment through Northern India. Rifles 
are of no use at night for sentries, since they carry far 
and may miss a foe and hit a friend, so every night 
we had all the rifles collected and stacked in front of 
the guard tent and carefully covered by tarpaulins. 
A ring of lamps was posted round them and two 
sentries were placed in charge with shot-guns loaded 
with slugs and with orders to fire on anyone entering 
the circle of light. This had the desired effect, as we 



154 THE AFTERMATH OF WAR 

never lost a rifle during our long march, and yet a 
native regiment which was brigaded with us and was 
largely composed of men of similar propensities, who 
ought to have been able to catch their thieves, lost 
rifles on more than one occasion. 

During the march down the Afghans gave us a lot 
of work at night. They would creep into camp in 
spite of the fact that there were sentries every 
hundred yards with two or three natives in between, 
and the tents were pitched in a square with the 
horses and mules inside it. At one camp four rifles 
and a heliograph were stolen out of a tent in my troop 
which was inhabited by four infantry soldiers 
attached to us. Later an Afghan galloped up in the 
middle of the night, cut the head and heel ropes of 
the end horse in my horse lines and was trying to 
make off with it when two of our men went for him 
and he galloped away. 

That same night we also had a camel, a pony, and a 
donkey stolen. The next night I had two grand 
horses put at the flanks of my troop line ; one was an 
animal that would never leave the stable under any 
persuasion unless he saw all the rest of the troop 
going ; the other was quiet enough in the day, but 
went mad with excitement at night and would yell, 
kick, and bite at anyone who went near him. Some 
thieves tried to cut them adrift early in the evening 
but could do nothing with either, and had to bolt on 
the approach of the sentry. They had better luck in 
E troop, where they cut a horse's lines and were 
walking off with him when the sentry saw the horse 
going but did not see the men, so he called to the 
sergeant of the guard that a horse had broken loose 
and was trotting away from the lines. The sergeant 



I SHOOT MYSELF 155 

went out and made a detour to catch the horse, and 
to his surprise found it in the charge of three 
Afghans, who promptly heaved stones at him and 
bowled him over. However, they let go the horse, 
which went straight back to his lines. 

This was all early in the evening. I got up about 
1.30 to go round the sentries and if possible to do a 
bit of thief-catching. I hid myself in a good spot 
between two horses and waited for ever so long with a 
sword ready ; but none came, so I left them and 
went to another place. I had not been gone ten 
minutes before four Afghans were seen by the 
sentry crawling along the ground at that very spot, 
and the idiot did not shoot one of them : so I turned 
in disgusted at 3.30. Next night, however, I was 
resolved I would get one, and after mess went to my 
tent to get my revolver out. I was examining it 
previous to loading, to see it was properly oiled, 
when T heard the sentry close by challenge someone 
in the dark. I knew what that meant, for generally 
the Afghans work in pairs ; one of them will crawl 
about in front of the sentry and attract his attention, 
while the other sneaks up behind the man and stabs 
him, or goes for the horse and cuts it loose, and gets 
away with it. As I ran out of my tent to help the 
sentry I clicked my pistol to see if it worked right 
before shoving the cartridges in. By Jove, it did 
work all right ! To my great surprise it went off 
and hit me in the left leg. At the same time that 
this happened Tommy Tomkins, the man in my troop 
who is so fond of corpses, ran up with his gun and 
made a corpse of one of the two Afghans, while the 
other got away safely. I found afterwards that my 
servant had loaded the pistol for me in anticipation 



156 THE AFTERMATH OF WAR 

of my wanting it, when I had left it purposely 
unloaded. The bullet went in at the top of the calf 
and settled somewhere down about my heel. The 
doctor, after probing for it nine times without 
success, said it was not worth while bothering to cut it 
out as it would be quite comfortable there. The only 
drawback was that I had now to ride in a dhooli, 
that is a covered stretcher, instead of on horseback 
with my troop. 

While I lay in my tent next morning waiting to be 
carted off I heard the voices of two of my men close 
by. " Have you heard the news, Tom ? Mr. 
Poul has shot himself." " No, has he ? " " Yes, 
and the corpse is in there." Then there was some 
fingering at the lacing at the back of my tent with a 
view to a peep, till I called to ask who was there, 
and some startled scampering took place. 

At length there came a day when it was possible 
to feel the bullet inside my leg. It was where I had 
expected to find it, just below the ankle-joint and 
not where the doctor had assured me it was, close 
to the knee. After fingering it about for some little 
time, the medico assured me it would require but a 
very simple operation to get it out. " A slit with a 
penknife through the skin would do it," hs said; 
" you will merely have to squeeze with finger and 
thumb and the bullet will squirt out like a cherry 
stone." He would come along in the afternoon and 
do it for me. 

I thought little or nothing of it until his servant 
arrived with a huge case of instruments which he 
laid out in my room, and then prepared basins, 
waterproof sheets, sponges and all the paraphernalia 
of a major operation. Then the assistant doctor 



PROBING FOR A BULLET 157 

came upon the scene and talked about the weather 
to such an extent that I began to realise that some- 
thing serious was on hand. Finally the boss doctor 
himself arrived ; he had been lunching, and when he 
lunched he lunched well. He asked if all was ready 
and whether or no I wanted chloroform. I said 
certainly not, as it was only a small matter like 
squeezing out a " cherry-stone," and that 1 should 
like to watch how it was done. He asked with some 
concern if there was any brandy in the place. I 
said: "Yes, but I shall not want it." He said: 
" No, but I do." And he took it. A pretty stiff 
nip too ! 

The junior doctor then took his seat upon me, and 
the old one got to work, jabbing a knife into me. He 
apparently took a bad shot the first time and jabbed 
it in again in another place, and then proceeded to 
do the " squeezing the cherry-stone " business. He 
found that the bullet had no intention of popping out 
as he expected, but was in reality embedded under- 
neath a thin muscle and had got a hardened shell 
round it. This needed a certain amount of mining 
operation with a thing like a spoon with sharp edges. 
His hand was not steady, and he kept diving into the 
wrong place and then correcting his aim. Finally he 
commenced what turned out to be like the old 
Moore and Burgess entertainment, "ten minutes 
genuine fun without vulgarity." I had got the 
corner of my pillow in my mouth, and the servant 
mopped my brow and fanned me, but all came right 
in the end, and after a good deal of jabbing and 
digging and pulling with tweezers the old boy 
triumphantly held up the bullet before my eyes. 
And I was mighty glad to see it ! 



158 THE AFTERMATH OF WAR 

Sir Oliver St. John took me in at the Residency at 
Quetta and made me comfortable while I was getting 
over my wounded leg. And I shan't forget my first 
day in his charming garden. I was brought in on 
my stretcher and left on the lawn under the shade of 
a tree to enjoy life by myself. Presently I saw with 
some apprehension a great big leopard stalking quietly 
about among the flower-beds. Suddenly he saw me, 
and, after looking at me coldly for a few moments, he 
gradually crouched lower and lower until he was 
flat with the ground, and then he calmly proceeded to 
stalk me, creeping nearer and nearer, inch by inch, 
and going more and more slowly as he got the nearer. 
All I seemed to see was a horrid grinning mouth, 
yellow-green eyes, and ears laid back, with a black 
tip of tail switching to and fro behind him. Mean- 
time I was lying perfectly helpless in my cot and 
fascinated with terror ; for, although I knew him to 
be a tame beast, with these grown-up cats you never 
know where you are. Nearer andnearer he came! Then 
he seemed to knot himself together , and with one mighty 
bound he was on top of me, with all the weight of a 
nightmare. I no longer pretended coolness, but simply 
yowled for help, with his grinning face about an inch 
from my own. Fortunately help was close at hand, and 
Sir Oliver's Afghan orderly, the same who had rescued 
his dog on the battlefield at Maiwand, ran up and 
tackled the leopard. In a few moments they were 
wrestling and rolling over each other, in what 
appeared to be a desperate struggle, but which, as a 
matter of fact, was all play, for they were the best of 
comrades. However, to prevent recurrence of such 
an incident the leopard was after this chained up to 
its tree, and I used to watch it by the hour and try to 



MY FIRST TRIAL AS A SCOUT 159 
sketch it in its beautiful, graceful movements and 
positions. I was genuinely sorry when some weeks 
later it got its chain caught up in the tree and so 
hanged itself. 

It was at Quetta that I got my first trial as a 
Scout. Some of our regiment were told off to act as 
enemy in some night operations for the protection 
of the cantonment, and we were told to creep in as 
far as possible and find out how the sentries, supports, 
and pickets were posted. Eager to do the work well, 
we of course started the moment that we were allowed 
to try and carry out our duties. Naturally the 
sentries were very much on the qui vive, and a good 
many of our scouts were observed by the sentries 
and either captured or driven back. Some of us 
managed to find out a good deal as to the location of 
the enemy's outposts and were then glad to lie down 
and have a sleep on some heaps of bhoosa (chopped 
straw) . Waking up some hours later, from the cold, 
I thought it might warm me up to go and try again 
to get more information. Knowing pretty well 
where the sentries were posted, I was able to evade 
them and to crawl past them to one of the supports. 

Having had all their excitement in the earlier part 
of the evening in driving us back, they apparently 
supposed we had retired for good and therefore the 
look-out was not so sharply kept as in the earlier part 
of the night. I had therefore no difficulty in getting 
past the support, and then in keeping along in rear to 
find the position of other supports, and eventually 
by following one of their visiting patrols I found the 
exact location of the reserve. Having gone as far as 
I could, I left my glove under a bush on the bank of 
the ravine by which I had arrived, and made my way 



160 THE AFTERMATH OF WAR 

back with my report to my own people, just as dawn 
was breaking. Later on, when the dispositions of 
both sides were being criticised by the General, a 
doubt was expressed whether our scouts had really 
gathered their information from personal observation 
or had merely made guesses of the outposts, since 
the defenders maintained that it was impossible for 
scouts to get through at the spots mentioned. I 
was able, however, to prove our case by directing them 
where to find my glove. 

I was at that time a smoker, but I afterwards 
learnt from some American scouts how helpful it was 
on such occasions to be able to smell the where- 
abouts of the enemy's outposts and thus to creep 
past them. These scouts did not smoke because 
they held that such practice is apt to destroy or to 
deaden very much the sense of smell. I therefore 
gave up smoking and have never taken to it since, 
and I certainly found the value of being able to smell 
an enemy at night ; it has been useful to me on more 
occasions than one. But whether it is actually the 
case that smoking handicaps one in this way I cannot 
say. 



V 



CHAPTER X 

LIFE IN THE HILLS 

Civilisation v. Vagabondage — My First Meeting with 
Lord Roberts — His Advice — Sir George White's Un- 
conventionally — Disguised as War Correspondents — 
We are Sumptuously Entertained — We are Discovered 
— A Hasty Trip to Simla — Ragging — An Enthusiastic 
Fire Brigade — My Death is Announced — " The Bound- 
ing Brothers of the Bosphorus " — A Mess Room as 
Sheepfold — " Ding " McDougal, Practical Joker — I 
Flee from Society — And Do Not Regret It — A Novel 
Umbrella — The Drawbacks of Education — My Post Bag 

WHEN I ultimately reached the happy posi- 
tion of being able to dispense leave to 
others instead of seeking for it myself, 
I made it a rule that, if a subaltern desired to go to 
a hill station to see a little gaiety and social life 
and so restore his health and vitality, he might have 
a month in which to do it ; on the other hand if he 
wanted merely to go and amuse himself big-game 
shooting or exploring the mountain regions of 
Kashmir I would give him — four months or even 
more if he could be spared ! 

Although I went once or twice myself to hill 
stations such as Simla, Mussoorie, or Nairn Tal, I 
could not say I liked them except for their climate 
and their glorious mountain scenery. These could 
all be much better enjoyed if we went off into camp 
and left the starchy formality and the round of 
social entertainments far behind. At the same 

161 M 



162 LIFE IN THE HILLS 

time, in spite of the heat and of the sickness and 
sudden death of comrades incidental to it, I liked 
my summers in the plains, with the sport and keen 
hard exercise. 

My first meeting with Lord Roberts was at Simla 
at a ball at Government House, on one of those 
occasions when I had forsaken the camp in favour 
of " starchy formality." I had not at that time 
learned many words of Hindustani. My partner 
had sent me to the refreshment buffet for an ice, 
and I was trying to make the native waiter under- 
stand what I wanted, when a stranger with a 
soldierly figure alongside me gave the order to the 
man in Hindustani, and then kindly patting me on' 
the shoulder he said : " Young fellow, you will 
make your life happier here if you learn a bit of 
the language. Who are you and where are you 
staying ? " I thanked him and gave him my name 
and thought no more of it ; but the next morning 
I received a little note from Sir Frederick Roberts 
giving me the name of a teacher of native languages 
who would help me. 

Many people do not bother to learn Hindustani, 
thinking that many of the natives will understand 
English for all practical purposes. This is so to a 
certain extent, but very few people in Northern 
India who want a good trustworthy servant will 
take one who speaks English. For some hidden 
reason, English-speaking and roguery seem to go 
together in an individual. Also it is worth knowing 
the language because it makes all the difference 
in the interest, pleasure, and success of going out 
in the district, whether for shooting, pigsticking, 
sketching or sight-seeing. If you can talk with the 



A TRAGIC ACCIDENT 163 

natives you get much more fun and enjoyment for 
your money. 

One of the leading lights at Simla at that time was 

the Military Secretary to the Viceroy. Like all 

his family, he was a wild kind of sportsman, 

but with the warmest, kindliest heart below it all! 

When I went to Simla I was brought there in a 

dhooli, utterly down with sickness and fever. As I 

passed along the road below Government House, 

hearing that I was a young officer of a cavalry 

regiment, he told the bearers to bring me to 

his house, and there he put me up and looked after 

me like a brother, although I was a comparative 

stranger to him. 

In my convalescence I tackled some of the 
books in the library and amongst them I found 
a volume of Lindsay Gordon's poems. Some of 
these referred to men who had died violent deaths, 
and others dealt with the regret a man feels for past 
incidents in his life. These passages I found under- 
lined and scored with pencil marks, with notes written 
on them showing that a meaning attached itself to 
them outside the covers of the book. Seeing me 
looking at the book one day he took it from me and 
gave me another copy for myself. I found after- 
wards that he had accidentally killed his best friend, 
a brother officer, by charging him in a frolic on 
the way home from polo, and that this had never 
really got off his mind. Though externally he 
seemed a cheery, devil-may-care character, yet he 
never could forget the loss of his friend and the 
feelings that it awoke. 

At Simla, Agnew, who was then A.D.C. to Sir 
George White, the Commander-in-Chief, and I went 



164 LIFE IN THE HILLS 

out to camp in the mountains. Everywhere were 
lovely deodar woods with views that made one 
gasp with delight ; and it was splendid exercise 
climbing up and down the mountainside after 
pheasants. It was just glorious ! Sir George White 
suddenly turned up in our camp one day all alone. 
He had walked over from Simla, which meant a 
sharp descent of some two thousand feet, and then 
an equally sharp climb of another two thousand in 
a walk of something like twelve miles. He was 
wonderful in the way of taking exercise, and used 
to run his start off their legs in going for exercise 
round the various roads in the neighbourhood of 
Simla. There is a tunnel by which the main road 
goes through the hillside at one spot, but it is so 
narrow that a policeman is stationed at each end 
to keep the traffic going alternately one way or the 
other. On the occasion of a large garden party, 
when all the rank and fashion of Simla in their 
rickshaws were about to pass through the tunnel, 
the policeman stopped them and held up the traffic, 
and the news spread that the Lord Sahib was coming 
through. The "Lord Sahib," I may remark, is 
the title given by the natives both to the Viceroy 
and to the Commander-in-Chief. Everybody waited 
expectantly to see one or other of these magnates 
riding through with all his glittering staff, instead 
of which there came from the tunnel a single, solitary 
figure, a tall, thin man in a singlet and flannels, run- 
ning in more senses than one, and not a little startled 
to find himself in the presence of Simla's society, 
collected as if to receive him. It was Sir George 
White. 

On returning from our camp to Simla, Agnew and I 



DISGUISED AS A CORRESPONDENT 165 
found that a theatrical performance was to take place 
that night at the theatre, so we agreed to disguise 
ourselves as two War Correspondents en route to the 
Front. He was to be English and I Italian. We did 
this just to puzzle the party to whose box we were 
invited. We sat down to dinner at Agnew's house 
in our disguises, and we were about three-quarters 
of the way through our meal when suddenly his native 
servant burst into an unnatural squeal of laughter, 
for he had suddenly recognised me through my dis- 
guise, having evidently until then supposed I was 
a stranger. 

We went to the theatre, and to the box where our 
friends were already arrived, and, having gained 
the assistance of an aide-de-camp of the Commander- 
in-Chief, we got him to introduce us as two news- 
paper men who had letters of introduction to Sir 
George White, who hoped that they would receive 
us and make us comfortable. This they did and 
were most affable and charming to us, explaining 
all the details of life in India in general and in 
Simla in particular. Encouraged by our success here 
we persuaded the aide-de-camp to take us round 
between the acts and introduce us to many other 
friends in other parts of the house, and none of 
them seemed to harbour any mean suspicion of us. 
Emboldened by this we went to our own supper 
party, to which we had invited our friends. In the 
meantime I wrote a note to a young officer of my 
regiment who was then on leave in Simla, and asked 
him to go and act on my behalf as host, as I was 
detained on business. I begged him to be particu- 
larly polite to two newspaper men, one an Italian 
who had letters of recommendation to me. He was 



166 LIFE IN THE HILLS 

most polite ! When we arrived at the door he not 
only welcomed Agnew in high-flown English, but 
he turned to me and in the most atrocious French 
endeavoured to express his greetings. This very 
nearly finished me. Although I was able to control 
the. muscles of my face the tears were streaming 
down from under my gold-rimmed spectacles, and 
as I mopped my eyes he asked with extreme solici- 
tude: "Est que vous etes malade aux yeux? " 
And I replied in my best Italian-English : " Yees, 
I am a little bit sick in the eyes." This became 
thereafter a regular phrase in Simla if you asked 
anybody how he was feeling. 

We had a glorious supper with our friends, talking 
all sorts of nonsense to them without being suspected 
until the end of the meal. Then I pretended to get 
a little the worse for so much good entertaining. 
The ladies hastily withdrew and the men were getting 
angry when we pulled off our wigs and disclosed 
ourselves. From this it will be seen that we were 
capable of being pretty frivolous, but I really think 
a few days of it do a man a power of good, and I 
was just about to return to Meerut to settle down to 
the gruelling round of winter drills and work. 

In India, as elsewhere, ragging breaks the mono- 
tony of existence, especially for the victim. A fellow 
seldom gets ragged without having given some cause 
for it ; either he is dirty and wants washing, or he 
has got some characteristic which needs toning 
down. I got plenty of it and I know how good it 
was for me. I have often heard it spoken of 
by outsiders as bullying, but personally I have never 
known it take that line. 

I remember a horrid game we had at the School 



I AM BROUGHT IN DEAD 167 

of Musketry at Hythe. Certain of us formed our- 
selves into a fire brigade for the purpose of saving 
life in the event of a conflagration, and we took every 
opportunity of keeping ourselves fit for work by 
practice. As soon as we saw a party of officers com- 
fortably settled to whist in the ante-room after mess, 
or congenially playing billiards together, a cry of 
" Fire ! " was raised, and immediately one party 
detailed for catching the victim rushed out and took 
up position below the mess-room window, while the 
second party of rescuers, shouting, "Smith's on 
fire ! " would rush and seize Smith from amongst 
his friends and carry him to the window and throw 
him out, to be caught by those below. In the many 
times that we did it, it only happened once that we 
threw a man out of the wrong window. The party 
were waiting for him at the next ; they got nothing 
and he got a bad fall. But we were not a bit 
sympathetic, beyond explaining to him that it was 
our mistake and not his. 

I took care to be particularly energetic in these 
rescues in order to avoid being rescued myself, but 
I fancy I must have overdone it, for one day while 
lying asleep in the sun on the lawn some of those 
who had been victims stalked and captured me, and, 
before I well understood what they were at, they had 
bound me to a plank, head and foot, a rope round 
every inch of me. A gag was put in my mouth, 
a sheet thrown over me, and I was carried to the 
guard-room with the information to all whom it 
might interest that I had fallen out of a window and 
broken my neck ! To add realism to the affair 
they had taken off my boots and socks and left 
my bare feet sticking out of the end of the sheet, 



168 LIFE IN THE HILLS 

and I was left for some time stretched on the table 
before somebody had the curiosity to have a closer 
look, and noticed that I was trying to signal for help 
with my toes, 

A new and original game was introduced into the 
mess by a brother of our Colonel who came to stay 
with him. We believed him to be a quiet, harmless 
planter from Behar, and so he seemed throughout 
the evening both during and after dinner, when he 
remained watching us playing the fool in various 
ways for our own amusement. But evidently 
our ways did not strike him as original, and he 
therefore invited us to play the great game of " The 
Bounding Brothers of the Bosphorus/' and when 
he had once shown us we joined most heartily in the 
sport. The game had few rules about it, but a 
certain amount of etiquette. The apparatus re- 
quired was that all the furniture should be piled in a 
heap about the centre of the floor and a writing 
table placed a couple of yards from it. You were 
expected then to clap your hands three times, 
that was the etiquette of the game, then run at the 
table and turn head over heels on it on to the pile 
of furniture, shouting as you did so : "I am a bound- 
ing brother of the Bosphorus ! " That was all. 
Quite simple, but how it hurt when you landed on 
the upturned legs of a chair or the side of a table ! 

Another man with original ideas, I remember, 
appeared one evening at the Curragh to add a zest 
to life after mess. He suggested that we should 
each put down a coin of the realm in a plate, and then 
sally out to catch sheep, and the one who first brought 
a sheep into the mess-room should take the pool. 
No sooner said than done ! We all flung our coins 






WE BORROW SOME SHEEP 169 

into the plate and started off, but as we hurried by 
one of the nearest of the officers' huts we heard a 
plaintive bleating coming from his bath-room and 
we found that he had already taken the precaution 
of securing a sheep before starting the idea of a pool. 
Naturally we released the sheep and wrecked his 
quarters ; still the idea was one that appealed to us, 
and we then continued our hunt on this dark and 




Sheep-stealing by officers. 



windy night. I knew that in such weather sheep 
were wont to gather by the covered cab-stand. I 
secured my animal and after infinite labour of pulling 
and hauling I eventually carried it home on my back, 
to the detriment of my mess uniform, only to find 
the mess-room already half filled with bleating, woolly, 
smelly monsters. Before long the whole place was a 
jam of sheep with a lot of very happy, dirty-looking 
officers contemplating their captures. One had 
unfortunately split his overalls in the effort, and in 



170 LIFE IN THE HILLS 

order that he might not feel himself out of fashion 
in this respect it became etiquette for all overalls 
to be split for that evening. A good time for the 
tailors next day ! 

Having wandered back to the happy days at the 
Curragh, another incident suggests itself to me. 
At one time bridge-building was much indulged in 
by the troops, and the officers, in order not to be 
behindhand in the art, started out one evening after 
mess to build a bridge. They went round their 
own and their neighbours' stables and collected 
every kind of dog-cart and vehicle that they could 
find. Then mounting on the roofs of two neigh- 
bouring huts they endeavoured to construct a bridge 
from one to the other composed of carts. They 
worked all night and by daylight had completed the 
abutments, but there were not sufficient whole 
vehicles left to complete the span ; but it was a fine 
attempt, and photographic record was taken of their 
handiwork. 

Looking back on this it is amazing to think that 
grown-up men could be such fools, or could be amused 
by such nonsense. Yet I will wager that there is 
not a man alive who enjoyed it as much as I did. 

" Ding " McDougal was celebrated for his origin- 
ality and want of taste in developing some of these 
weird performances. I remember him at a great 
ball in India going and standing under the chandelier 
in the centre of the ball-room and quietly twisting 
it round and round in one of the intervals between 
the dances. When the next dance began he stood 
there holding it until all the couples were merrily 
at it, then he let go and the chandelier spun round 
and round at a fearful rate, sending a spray of hot 



THE VAGARIES OF DING 171 

candlewax in all directions on the shoulders of the 
women and the uniforms of the men. How they 
cursed him ! But they forgave him and laughed. 

He also excelled himself one day when we had 
arrived in a new station and were invited to become 
honorary members of the Club. The secretary was 
showing us over the premises and we were in the 
dining-room, which opened into the ante-room. In 
this room was seated a dignitary of the Church with 
a tall hat and curved brim with strings leading from 
the brim to the top. This attracted Ding's atten- 
tion. He walked up behind to examine it more 
carefully, and having had a good look at the hat, 
suddenly bashed it down on to the owner's head, 
and then retired into the dining-room and pelted 
him with oranges while he was struggling to get his 
hat off his eyes. Of course we were asked not to 
become members of the Club after that. 

Ding always was a nuisance, especially at polo. 
He was a brilliant player and might have been 
invaluable to the regiment, but he let us down on 
more than one occasion by bringing into the match 
a wild, tearing, racing pony which he wanted to 
qualify for a polo pony race, or for sale as one which 
had played in first-class polo. Play, indeed! It 
was as much as he could do to get it on the ground 
at all — and he was as good a rider as any in India — 
much less get it to go for the ball. It was all very 
well for him, but it did not help us to win the match. 

But I was never one for the gaiety of social life 
when there was a chance of getting out into the 
wild, and as I have said, my experience of the hill 
stations is not a very large one. On one occasion 
I went to Mussoorie, a straggling station about three 



172 LIFE IN THE HILLS 

miles in length, situated on a woody ridge. The 
paths were rough with grit and exceedingly dusty ; 
house refuse was chucked about on the slopes ; 
untidy little shanties were all over the place and 
smells were everywhere. The " society " was ex- 
tremely mixed and included many with very foreign- 
sounding names, who adorned themselves with all 
the finery they could lay their hands on in imitation 
of fashionable dresses — with a special eye for hats — 
and their manners were of the highest class. There 
were comparatively few English people. 

On the night of my arrival I found that I was 
expected to attend a grand Masonic banquet, at 
which I was called upon to make a speech, and after 
that to continue being funny until one o'clock in the 
morning. This was merely the beginning. Invita- 
tions floated in upon me for every night of the 
following week, not to mention the cards and notes 
reading, " Mrs. So-and-So wants me to bring you to 
tea to-morrow, etc." They were all very kind and 
I accepted every one with a grin, in some cases 
two or three invitations for the same night. One 
day, according to my diary, I seem to have taken 
myself to task. 

" You have accepted all these festivities," I told 
myself. " You are engaged for a farewell dinner to 
Colonel B. to-night, you are asked to come with a good 
repertoire of songs and musical sketches ; to-morrow 

you are to lunch with Mrs. , to tea with Mrs. 

, to dine at the . Are you to do all these 

things ? " . 

" No ! " replied my alter ego. 

" Well then, if it is not a rude question, what are 
you going to do ? " 



I BOLT TO THE WILD 173 

" I am going to make a bolt of it." 

That is exactly what I did. Outside, the wild was 
calling, and I packed up my kit, left a note to say 
I was off to Chakrata, thirty-eight miles distant, and 
started off secretly in a howling rain-storm. My 
outfit consisted of James (my kitmutgar), " Special " 
(my Arab pony), Jack (my pup), together with 
four coolies, laden as follows : 




My walking kit. 

1. My clothes and bedding. 

2. My despatch box and tea basket. 

3. Our food and cooking-pots. 

4. The ponies' blankets, corn, etc. 

Down we trudged through the driving rain, wetted 
to the skin in the first five minutes. The path we 
pursued was cut in the steep hill-side with no view 
but that of whirling mist and rain. In the evening 
we by luck chanced upon an empty road engineer's 
bungalow, where we laid a roaring fire, before which 
I dried my clothes, then enjoyed a cold dinner and 
slept in comfort. 



174 LIFE IN THE HILLS 

The next day I was reminded of the civilisation 
I had left by a picturesque looking old temple and 
bang alongside of it a little modern building 
like a Methodist chapel, but labelled " school." I 
thought how much better the old was than the 
new. For these people our modern efforts are not 
required, their old style is more in keeping with 
their character and country. It would be, I argued, 
much better to convert our own people from drink- 
ing and irreligion than these from a faith that for its 
grip upon the herd is a much better one than our own. 

That night I slept in a little engineer's bungalow 
perched in a grand situation, overlooking a deep- 
down valley with its fields terraced one above the 
other like steps leading from the heights into the 
depths below. Here I stayed a whole day. Occa- 
sional showers and mists rolled across the mountains 
and filled the valleys, now wrapping us in a white 
fog, then breaking into holes through which I obtained 
startling glimpses of brilliant green sunlit country 
spread out far below. And so I continued day after 
day at an altitude of some thousands of feet. 

One day I chanced upon a beautifully situated 
little dak bungalow, seven thousand feet up. It 
was a clean little house, with a dining-room in the 
centre and a bed and bathroom at each end, with 
kitchen, stables, etc. The bungalow looked across a 
little strip of lawn, on which " Special " grazed, down 
into a deep valley below. Ranges of hills rose one 
above another until they seemed piled up in the sky, 
and if only the weather had been less misty I could 
have seen above them a grand line of snow peaks. 
I spent a delightful, lazy day at the bungalow, 
writing and sketching, with Jack in close attendance 



THE PEACE OF THE MOUNTAINS 175 
upon me. It was bright and warm, with cool, fresh 
air, and no sound but the buzz of the bees (we got 
excellent honey from the village a thousand feet 
below), and the distant tinkle of a cow-bell, varied 
by an occasional swish of "Special's" tail. Gazing 
over the immense hills, and looking almost sheer 
down into the deep valleys between, I felt like a 
parasite on the shoulders of the world. There was 
a bigness about it all that opened and freshened the 
mind. It was like a cold tub for the soul. 

The next day I could not tear myself away, so 
voted myself another holiday. I obtained a splendid 
view from the hill behind the bungalow. What I 
had been thinking were giants (seven thousand 
foot hills) I found were mere dwarfs and children. 
Above them towered a far higher crowd of heights 
and shoulders, twelve thousand to fourteen thousand 
footers, I should think, and away above them were 
furled the white mists that veiled the old hoary : 
headed twenty thousand to twenty-five thousand 
footers. 

It is curious that all over these hills are innumer- 
able paths, and you meet men staggering up and 
down them with enormous loads on their backs, 
generally bundles of twigs with leaves on, or great 
slabs of slate. But I do not believe they are taking 
them anywhere in particular. They are just like 
ants going about aimlessly with their burdens. 
They clothe their upper bodies in coarse dirty sacking 
or canvas and leave their legs all bare to be admired, 
for they are splendidly made. 

The ladies of the country dress in a skirt and a 
waistcoat (generally without any buttons on it) 
and a long white linen coat with a band round the 



176 LIFE IN THE HILLS 

waist, and on ordinary occasions a handkerchief 
tied over their heads. Altogether very like Monte- 
negrin women, bar the forage cap. 



^v 










, - ix» -»<^<-m3 



The local umbrella. 



The last day I was there was a festive occasion, 
a matinee going on somewhere, I should guess, as all 
I met had enormous hats on. Things that looked 
like small victorias without wheels and made of red 
woollen coils with white wings of linen streaming 



AN UNINSPIRED GUIDE 177 

behind — a sort of indescribable head-gear. As often 
happens, as in Malta, for instance, although the 
men have often good features, the women are all 
hideous. 

In the rain the natives all wear roofs or envelopes 
on them in lieu of umbrellas. They are the shape 
of an envelope, with one side and one end slit open, 
and made of a thatch of big leaves laid on like 
fishes' scales. The wearer walks about with the 
upper part resting on his head : both hands free. 
If stood up on end it makes a sentry-box, if stood 
on its open side it makes a tente d'abri. There's a 
tip for the Military Equipment Company — it has 
already gone to the Boy Scouts. 

One evening after a bath and delicious change 
into dry flannels, I sauntered out to look again at 
the old temple alongside the Methodist Chapel. 

I saw also the village schoolmaster — a native, 
of the oily sort, dressed in European clothes, walking 
out round the village, with an umbrella up, but his 
brass lota in his hand. Again an instance of the 
attempt to blend the old and the new. 

While I was looking at the quaint old temple, a 
studious-looking native came and wanted to talk, 
so I asked him if he knew how old the temple was, 
and he said : " Lord of the poor, it is many years 
old." Then I pointed out some carved panels and 
asked the meaning of the different figures on them. 
" That, most mighty, is the figure of a man. 
This other one is not of a man but of a bird." 
" M'yes. I can see that much for myself. But have 
they no story ? What is the bird doing, for instance ? " 

II Nothing, your Highness ; there is no story about 
them. Perhaps he-who-is-my-father-and-mother 

N 



178 LIFE IN THE HILLS 

would now like to look at something more of interest, 

our modern school ? " " Oh, get out " 

Really, in fine weather, for an artist, this little 
village, so close to Mussoorie, would give a very 
good subject for a picture — the overhanging roofs 
with wooden fringes supported by numerous struts, 
the rich coloured woodwork of the deep balconies 
and their quaint carving and dark shadows. The 
houses are like big dolls' houses, too small to 
stand up in ; and in order to see out of the little 
peep-hole windows of the upper storey the inmates 
sit on the floor. 

I was concerned about poor Jack, who was in a 
very bad way with a cough ; it seemed to shake the 
life out of his small body. I boiled some bran and 
made a big hot poultice in a towel, which I wrapped 
all round him. I also put hot bran in a bag and made 
him inhale its steam. He took it very well, whining 
at the first heat of it, but settling down to endure 
it quite quietly, poor little chap. The next day 
I sent him on ahead in his travelling carriage, a 
basket stuffed with hay and covered with a mackin- 
tosh, carried on a coolie's back, with a letter to the 
steward of the Club telling him what to do. 

Even from the verandah of this bungalow the 
hills all round were beautiful to look at. Clouds were 
lying thick along their tops, but the lower slopes 
were marvellous in colour : purple, blue, and violet, 
that could scarcely be exaggerated in painting ; 
but quite beyond me to attempt. The nearer slopes 
were exactly like green velvet bunched up in folds, 
whilst some eight hundred feet down was the river. 

I was told before starting that the " road wasn't 
anything attractive," none of the bungalows were 



THE CALL OF THE WILD 179 

" what you would call prettily situated except per- 
haps Churani Pani," and Lakwar, the one I 
was in, was "positively beastly." Well, inside it was 
dark, ill- ventilated and full of flies ; but from the 
verandah the view was quite good enough for me. 








The metamorphosis of the wanderer. 

One man to whom I had confided my intention to 
bolt from Mussoorie had laughed when I said I 
proposed to take six days going and returning and 
offered to bet I would be back in three or four days ; 
but at the end of eight days I was sorry to be so 
near home, in fact, if it had not been for Jack and 
the uncertainty of news (as to whether I was in 
command of the District yet), I should have been 
inclined to stay out yet another few days. 



180 LIFE IN THE HILLS 

In my spare time I studied Hindustani, and could 
already read and write fairly well. 

When at last I returned to the Club and civilisation 
it was to find 4 telegrams, 10 official letters and 
44 private ones awaiting me. " What a treat ! ,: 
is the comment I made, according to my diary, and 
thus I returned from the wild, unchastened in spirit 
and very vigorous in mind and body. 




CHAPTER XI 

" TIGER, TIGER, BURNING BRIGHT " 

A Possible Interrogation — I Go in Pursuit of Tigers — 
Smith-Dorrien at Work — The Party Meets — The Old 
Hands — A Native Weakness — How to Beat for Tigers — 
A Dead Enemy — A Native Village — Nearly a Fatality — 
Camp Literature — I Become Doctor — I Get a Bear — 
Camp Life — A Tiger's Wings — The Mahout — The 
Tables Turned — Table Delicacies — Jungle Yachts — 
The End of the Ghost 

WHEN I had been in India for some five 
years, 1 began to think of the future. 
Some day I might die, and I should look 
exceedingly foolish in the other world if, on being 
asked how I had enjoyed tiger shooting when I was 
in India, I had to confess that in all the years I had 
been there I had never tasted this form of sport. 

April is the month for tiger shooting. It is also 
the month for pigsticking and hitherto I had always 
indulged in this last form of sport. So I determined 
to break away from my usual pigsticking, and to 
take a turn in the jungle. I had an excellent 
opportunity offered me, because there was going to 
Nepaul a party that had, in the previous year, had 
exceptionally fine sport, bagging over thirty tigers 
in a fortnight. Sir Baker Russell had been one of 
the party ; but he was not able to go on this 
occasion, and I was therefore to take his vacant 
place. 

181 



182 TIGER, TIGER, BURNING BRIGHT 

On April 12, '98, 1 left Meerut and reached Bareilly 
the next morning. With the usual perverseness of 
Indian railways the train which was to take me on 
from that place to Pillibhit on the Nepaul border 
started half an hour before my train got in, which 
condemned me to wait more than ten hours before 
there was another train to carry me on. However, 
I did not much mind the delay, as it gave me a 
chance of seeing my friends in this station, including 
Smith-Dorrien of the Derbyshire Regiment, who had 
just returned from the front in Chitral and was 
shortly to go off to Egypt on service there. I will 
not say he was a lucky beggar, because I felt that of 
all men he deserved to get on. [N.B. — Written 
before this war.] 

During the few days which he was spending with 
his regiment between the two campaigns, he was 
hard at work for the welfare of his men, working up 
their coffee-shop and canteen comforts and his 
cycling club, through which they could develop 
health and amusement. I was glad of the chance of 
seeing how he worked these things, and I afterwards 
cribbed many of his ideas for doing the same in my 
own regiment. In fact I arranged, then and there, 
for the purchase of a dozen bicycles towards starting 
our regimental biking club, which was afterwards 
an enormous success, because we developed it into 
a despatch-riding unit, which effected a great 
saving of horseflesh and became a most efficient 
means of carrying out communications for service. 
At Bareilly I picked up two more of our party, 
Major Ellis and Major Olivier, Royal Engineers, who 
were both of them old tiger-shooters. A few miles 
down the line we were joined by McLaren, of my 



THE OLD HANDS TALK 183 

old regiment, and St. John Gore of the 5th Dragoon 
Guards, and these completed our party. 

During the rest of the journey we three beginners 
sat agog while Ellis and Olivier told yarns of tiger- 
shooting and of its dangers, each capping the other 
with something more wonderful in the way of 
adventures and close shaves. When they had 
worked us up into a complete state of trepidation, 
some of us volunteered to shoot quail for the pot 
while the rest were out tiger-shooting, and being 
of a modest disposition myself I agreed to look 
after camp for the whole lot of them, as it seemed to 
me that in a jungle so full of tigers as this one 
appeared to be you had every chance of coming 
upon a tiger even when you were merely harmlessly 
quail shooting. For my part I felt inclined to let 
sleeping dogs lie. 

We arrived at the end of our railway journey late 
in the afternoon and found that our faithful ser- 
vants, who had been sent on before with our camp 
equipment, had got dinner all ready for us at the 
side of the line, and after a few more yarns on the 
subject of tiger-shooting we turned in. It was 
warm weather, and we slept in the open, that is we 
slept as well as the yowling pariahs would let us. 
Next morning we went on to our camp, which we 
found pitched in a temporary native cattle village, 
just in Nepaul. Native servants may always be 
trusted to find the dirtiest bit of ground in the 
country to pitch your camp on ! If they cannot 
find a cattle-standing they will choose a native 
village, and in time you become an epicure in odours. 

Bala Khan, a local native gentleman and sports- 
man, joined us here. He reported twelve tigers to 



184 TIGER, TIGER, BURNING BRIGHT 
be about in the district, but probably none in 
to-morrow's beat. At dinner somebody remarked 
that I was wearing M. C. C. (Marylebone Cricket 
Club) colours without being entitled to them ; but 
" the Boy " explained that I probably did belong to 
the M. C. C, viz., the Margate Cycling Club ! 




Bala Khan directing operations. 



It was a great delight to be in shirt-sleeves and 
cowboy hat, in camp once more. Our kits were 
generally much alike, especially as regards thick 
pads on the back to prevent sun-stroke, a very 
necessary precaution. 

Half our elephants not having arrived we went out 
with the fifteen we had, each of us in a howdah, on 
top of an elephant. A howdah is a cane-sided, 



A TIGER BEAT 185 

boat-like car with seat for yourself and one behind 
for a native. It is fitted with gun-racks, cartridge- 
pockets, etc. My general armament consisted of a 
•500 express, and a Paradox, or 12 bore, firing ball. 
The other equipment carried in the howdah was a 
chagul, or water-bottle, full of tea and lime juice ; 
a blanket to roll up in if attacked by bees ; an 
umbrella, gloves, and blue spectacles for protection 
against sun, a dry shirt, a towel, a camera and 
sketch-book, a yard measure, and a skinning knife. 

Off we went, across country very like English 
park-land ; but without the " antlered herds," and 
plus the scent of flowering grass, a scent just like 
that of the powder some women use ; it reminded 
me at once of — well, to continue. All the country 
here had been under water during the rains for a 
width of ten miles and to a depth of twelve feet. All 
green, wild, and gamey looking, very like Mashona- 
land. 

At a small straw-hut camp of cattle-grazers the 
natives, women as well as men, came out quite 
cheerily to talk and told us they had that morning 
seen a tiger near by. 

We went into the sal-forest, with its long stems, 
small branches, and big, fresh, light-green leaves, 
and on reaching a boggy stream with a tropical 
jungle of canes, ferns, and reeds, we took up positions 
for finding a tiger. Gore, Olivier, and I were posted, 
I in the stream, they on each bank. The line of 
elephants beat up the stream from about a mile 
lower down ; the Boy in advance on one flank, the 
Khan on the other, and Ellis working the line. 

There we sat for an hour — watching. The twitch 
of a leaf, or the rustle of the beautiful dark peacock- 



186 TIGER, TIGER, BURNING BRIGHT 
green doves pricked our excitement. But no tiger. 
At last we could hear the line of elephants crackling 
along ; but very cautiously. Then silence again. 
Suddenly a bellowing roar — a screaming trumpeting 
of elephants — yells of mahouts — bang goes a rifle — 
jabbering — orders shouted — on come the elephants 
— crash, splash — bang, bang — something tears 
through the bush across my front and then fifty 
yards to my left a grand, great tiger springs gaily 
across the pathway. I banged at him as he dis- 
appeared into the jungle, and then turned my 
elephant and followed up with all speed. I saw him 
canter, tail up, and enormous he looked too, into a 
fresh patch of high grass and weeds. Again we 
formed to beat him out, three of us going on about 
half a mile while the line beat him up. Presently 
we in advance heard a rifle report and then a 
second. The mahouts shouted to each other and 
we learned that the old brute had turned and charged 
the line of elephants and had fallen to Ellis's gun. 

It was now three o'clock and, while the mahouts 
got a great net round him (the only way to get 
sufficient hold of him, and an enormously massive 
brute he was), and hoisted him on to a pad-elephant, 
we squatted down to lunch on cold chicken and 
lime juice and soda. We found our new camp 
situated on a knoll in the sal-forest with a glimpse of 
the hills between the trees. It was known as 
Sinkpal Guree ; Stinkpal would have been more 
appropriate. Voltaire says : " Le corps d'un en- 
nemi mort sent toujours bon." He cannot have 
smelt a tiger the day after it was shot. The next 
morning we were quite reconciled to leaving our 
beautiful camp on this account. 






WE BAG OUR QUARRY 187 

When necessary to move camp, we would select a 

spot and leave the rest to our native servants. 

t 

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When the beat was over we would rush for the new 
spot and find everything in readiness. The tents 
and other paraphernalia were carried on our camels 



188 TIGER, TIGER, BURNING BRIGHT 

and bullock carts, and our drinking water (we brought 
our own in iron tanks) on a bullock dray. 

During the night of the second day our missing 
elephants arrived in camp, which was very satis- 
factory as it meant a far better chance of sport. To 
counterbalance this good fortune, we found Ellis 
looking very grey and tired ; he had got a touch of 
fever, and had to lie up for the day in camp. We 
others started with twenty-seven elephants in a 
blazing hot sun. Our pad elephants carried us at 
first, this being far more comfortable both for 
elephant and man than a howdah, for a longish ride. 
These are elephants with big mattresses or pads 
fastened on their backs and are used for beating 
the jungle and for carrying home the game when 
shot. 

Although the days should seem long with so little 
shooting, as a matter of fact they do not. The sun 
is blazing hot, and the elephants move so slowly, 
but they are such interesting beasts to watch that the 
time slips by very comfortably. Also one lives in 
constant hope of a tiger, and there is always a world 
of pretty scenery about. 

The few small patches of cultivation had " mach- 
ans," look-out platforms from which the natives 
watch their crops and flocks against wild animals. 
The natives were wilder-looking than those of the 
plains, the men with shock-heads of hair ; yet their 
huts were much neater and more comfortable, having 
a small verandah in front, clean wattle and daub 
walls, and a small " hall " inside the door with a 
room opening off to each side of it. 

On reaching the forest we got off our pad-elephant 
cover-hacks and on to our howdahs. Again the 



THE ELEPHANT'S INTELLIGENCE 189 
same plan of beating, two of us as stops posted at 
the mouth of a swampy stream, the remainder of 
the elephants beating it in line towards us. This 
waiting for a tiger " donne une emotion," as the 
Frenchman would say, especially when the line 
approaches and you hear the elephants breaking 
down small trees and dead branches, with a noise 
just like guns firing, in order to frighten the tiger, 
and then they come in sight in a close and formid- 
able line that must push the brute on to you if he is 
there. 

This time he was not ; but at the last moment, 
when the line was only about thirty yards from me, a 
panther jumped up close to Gore, who had two shots 
at him in the long grass ; but though we beat care- 
fully for him we did not see him again. Then we 
moved off two miles, and halted for lunch on the 
bank of a river, where our elephants bathed while we 
enjoyed the scenery and a cool breeze. 

About sunset we turned homewards, doing 
" general shooting." Beating out one bit of cover 
we got shots at a lot of jungle fowl, just like small 
English fowls ; they cluck and crow the same, 
except that they say cock-a-doo instead of cock-a- 
doodle-doo, but they fly like pheasants. We got 
seven of them. On the way home my elephant trod 
on a thorn. He stopped and held up his foot and 
would not budge till the mahout had got down and 
examined it. The mahout saw the thing but it was 
broken short off in the foot, so he could not get it out. 
He told the elephant it was all right, and the old brute 
went on quite happily again and we got back to 
camp after dark through a crowd of dancing fire-flies. 
As Sir Baker Russell had not come on this shoot, 



igo TIGER, TIGER, BURNING BRIGHT 
the other fellows took to calling me " the General- 
Sahib." But one night Olivier appeared at dinner 
in a black velveteen coat ! We could not live up to 
such form. As a matter of fact I had not any coat 
to wear in camp so I felt I could not pretend to the 
exalted position in the face of such rivalry, and I 
determined to resign. 

Although the sun was very hot in the day, yet the 
air was cool whenever there was a breeze, whilst at 
night it was quite cold. I put on a blanket about 
midnight and a resai (quilt) about 3 a.m. 

One morning before breakfast the Boy and I 
drove off on a pad-elephant to the neighbouring 
village of Dais, to see how the people lived and 
whether they had any curios worth buying. The 
houses are very neat and clean inside as well as out. 
They were divided by partitions into several rooms, 
one of which is the kitchen, well kept and tidy, 
which, however, they did not like us to enter. They 
had a few muzzle-loading guns and some inferior 
tulwars. Their ordinary working tools, axes and 
koorpies (grass-cutting chisels) they would not sell, 
but the Boy bought a cow-bell, and I got a carved 
club and a quaint iron lamp. We gave them two 
rupees for the lot, at which they grinned and ex- 
amined the rupees as if they had never seen such 
things before. The women and children were 
quite friendly and, after getting over their first 
shyness, they crowded round and grinned to see 
us so interested in their household odds and ends. 
These people have the Chinese eyes of the Ghoorkas 
and Thibetans, but the taller physique of the 
Hindus. The women wear two braids of hair 
looped across their foreheads. 



ATTEMPTS ON MY LIFE 191 

That day we beat a large swamp south of the 
camp, where the grass and reeds were so vast in 
extent and thick and high that the elephants were 
often completely out of sight in it. It was on our 
return to camp that the incident occurred that 
nearly brought my life and my diary to an abrupt 
termination. Another sportsman riding up along- 
side me on his elephant with his rifle lying across his 
howdah accidentally let it off. Fortunately I was 
thin and the bullet passed across my front without 
perforating my corporation. I do not think I am 
fated to be shot accidentally ; for this is not the only 
time that I have escaped that sort of an end. Apart 
from the ordinary shaves incidental to cover-shooting 
at home, I have had others. I was missed by a mule 
once. I am probably the only man who has been 
shot at by a mule, although many have experienced 
narrow escapes from asses. We had just buried a 
man during a fight in the Matoppos, and his rifle had 
been strapped on to the pack-saddle of a mule ; but 
no one had noticed that the rifle was loaded and at 
full cock. We noticed it a few moments later when 
the mule walked on and in brushing past a bush 
caught the trigger of the rifle on a twig, and the 
bullet passed " between my ear and my skull," as 
the Zulus say when they wish to indicate a narrow 
shave. When forming a force for the defence of 
Mafeking I went to inspect them in the manual and 
firing exercise. They were put through the actions 
of " Ready," " Present," and " Fire." Two or three 
of them did more than merely go through the 
action, they actually did fire, having forgotten to 
unload their rifles after a previous lesson in how to 
load. As I did not happen to be standing in front 



192 TIGER, TIGER, BURNING BRIGHT 

of a firer, I got nothing out of it ; the firers got a good 
deal — of advice. 

One night I heard a horrible noise which I took to 
be my bearer clearing his throat, so I shouted to 
him in plain terms what I thought of him and his 
ancestors, and what I would do if he didn't move 
further afield to carry on his concert. There was 
no reply, till breakfast time, and then poor Ellis 
mildly asked why he should be called a " soor " 










Bagging a panther. 



because he couldn't " help " having fever. The 
word " help " has a double meaning, it is what our 
dog used to say, as almost any dog will, when he had 
been eating grass or was otherwise not feeling quite 
well. 

The flies were a great nuisance, at one time forcing 
us to change our camp. At meals it was a case of 
one hand hurrying the food into you while the 
other kept the flies momentarily at bay. Somebody, 
who went in for statistics about flies, has found that 
if you kill two bullocks and give one to a lion to eat 
and the other to a pair of flies, the flies and their 
progeny will make a close race of it with the lion ; 



CAMP LITERATURE 193 

both parties taking about two days to carry out the 
job. Such is the rate of increase among flies. We 
had been in this particular camp for three days and 
there was more than one pair in residence when we 
arrived. 

I generally rode with the Boy. The literature he 
had brought for light reading in camp and on the 
elephant was very instructive, viz., the British 
Almanac. He was always bringing out most instruc- 
tive remarks, but neither he, nor any of us, not even 
our four Whitakers, Encyclopaedias, etc., could 
answer Bala Khan when he asked us the simple 
question : " How far is the moon from the earth? " 
Most of us knew the distance of the sun, and the 
books gave us the distances of all the planets ; but 
none give the moon. 

We beat a likely looking river-bank jungle without 
result, and afterwards some swamps, but never saw 
a sign of a tiger. The grass was much higher, more 
abundant and green this year than usual ; generally 
most of it is burnt by the end of April. On the 
way to our new camping-ground at Toti I sus- 
tained a severe loss, namely, the old belt I wore 
in Matabeleland. The hole at which I wore it 
there speaks volumes for the large amount 
of exercise and the small amount of food we 
had, and the consequent reduction of my 
" capacity." 

At Toti Camp, too, I definitely resigned my position 
as " Sir Baker Russell," and they then made me 
doctor of the expedition. I got to work on Ellis 
with a Dover's Powder and mustard leaf, having 
diagnosed his fever as influenza, followed by Pyretic 
Saline next morning. For Olivier I prescribed 

o 



194 TIGER, TIGER, BURNING BRIGHT 

three drops of chloroform in half a bottle of 
soda-water for headache without fever ; but I do 
not suppose he took it. One of the cart-men, to 
whom I was called, I found lying covered with a 
sheet. He was supposed to be dead, having had a 
cart fall over on to him. Finding no bones broken 
I made him a liniment of vinegar and whiskey, 
and gave him a podophyllin pill. He eventually 
recovered from all of them. 




Dandelion was as firm as a rock. 

Our starts were invariably late, as we had to wait 
for the return of the shikaries who go out at dawn to 
look for tracks of tiger and then return with their 
" khubber " or news. One morning they found 
fresh tracks of two tigers. We got to the place, a 
most likely looking nullah, in the forest, and beat it 
carefully out, but nothing came. Then we tried a 
second even better nullah, which almost felt as if it 
held a tiger. We saw fresh spoor in several places, 
but never a glimpse of a tiger. 



THE CLEVERNESS OF DANDELION 195 

After lunch we reformed the line in the forest and 
went straight through, beating up several likely- 
looking bits of reed en route. I was moving as half 
forward on the left when a shout from the line 
warned us a bear had been seen. I was at the 
moment in a deep ravine with steep sides. My 
mahout looked anxiously round to find a good way out, 
and seeing none he put " Dandelion," my elephant, 
straight at it and we began to climb. Holding tight 
inside my howdah I could see nothing in front till 
suddenly " Dandelion ■ ' stopped and stood like a rock 
hanging on in an almost perpendicular position. I 
knew that with " Dandelion " this " freezing " was 
like a setter's " point " and meant game afoot. I 
jumped up and at first could see nothing, till a 
moving tuft of fur along the top of the bank above 
me showed where a great black bear was rolling along 
at a lumbering canter. I let fly at him with the 
Paradox at about forty yards and heard it thud into 
him. He fell for a moment, and then was up again 
and moving on when I gave him the second barrel 
and he turned head over heels and then rolled 
end over end close past us down to the bottom of 
the nullah. Even then he struggled a bit and I 
gave him another shot (which missed !) and another 
which hit him in the shoulder close by the first ; my 
second shot had hit him in the neck. Then I 
jumped down and went and examined him. He was 
a very big black bear, measuring seven feet two 
inches, with a good coat. After this the world 
seemed more cheerful and I thoroughly enjoyed the 
view of him during the remainder of the homeward 
beat, as he reposed on the top of a pad elephant. 

It was evident that the floods or something had 



196 TIGER, TIGER, BURNING BRIGHT - 
vastly changed this country since the previous year. 
Smith-Dorrien's diary of his party's trip shows that in 
addition to a total of twenty-three tigers they used 
every day to shoot several buck, besides seeing 
unlimited numbers of them. We would see only 





The spoil. 



about five or six in a whole day. One beast that I 
saw every day, and would like to get, was a very 
handsome little dove. I had never seen him any- 
where before. He lived only in the thickest swamp 
jungles, and was very shy. He generally dashed 
away the moment the elephants began beating and 
there was seldom more than one of him in a beat. I 
was often tempted to have a whang at him as he came 




A SENSE OF SMELL 197 

whizzing past, but no general shooting was allowed 
during a tiger beat, and I never saw him at other 
times. 

After dinner our skin-curer was showing us the 
small bones, said to be rudimentary wing-bones, 
which he had cut out of the previous days' tiger, 
when one of them was dropped on the ground. For 
a long time we searched in the grass with a lantern, 
but in vain, till, going down on all fours, I played at 
being a dog and, after a little " niffing " about, I 
soon winded the missing link. These rudimentary 



S^%#fe 







Smelling out~"a7tiger's wing-bone. 

wing bones are said to connect tigers with the 
grifhn. 

Our want of luck now resulted in a council of 
war, and it was resolved to move on to Calcutta 
(not the Calcutta) two marches from Camp Akadbully, 
where we then were, where the jungle had been burnt 
and two tigers at any rate were known to be. Al- 
though we were getting no sport, yet the time was 
very enjoyable and slipped by very quickly. Every 
day was exactly like the last, and this was our 
routine as noted in my diary. At dawn we awoke 
and had tea, during which we would lazily chaff each 
other and enjoy the cool air. The country round was 
full of the noise of birds, the jungle fowl, especially, 



198 TIGER, TIGER, BURNING BRIGHT 

making it quite civilised with their cock-crowing. 
The blue, misty view was very good too. At about 
eight we would think of dressing, after which we 
breakfasted in the open. By nine a dead stillness 
would come over the forest and the sun was already 
high and strong. Half an hour later the howdah 
elephants came round to our tents to be loaded up 
with guns, water-bottles, etc. Then came the pad 
elephants and we mounted and rode off, umbrellas 
up and goggles on, Ellis and the Khan on one 
elephant, Gore and Olivier, the Boy and self. 

This was the worst part of the day. From ten to 
twelve it was dead, sweltering heat and no breeze. 
About an hour's ride would bring us to the cover. 
Here we would mount our howdahs and carry on the 
beat. This was rather like a game. As in all 
games, including the game of soldiering, you ought 
to play for your side and not for yourself, the aim 
being to get the tiger killed by the party, not merely 
to get a shot at him yourself. A line of a dozen pad 
elephants beat out the cover. The two forward 
guns or stops are sent ahead to head him and stop 
him going away forward. Two side guns act 
principally as stops at all likely points of escape on 
either flank. Guns with the line prevent him from 
going back. The thing is to hold him in till the 
guns are in a circle round him and he cannot escape. 
We did it awfully well, but then we never had the 
tiger to put in the centre. 

The elephants move very slowly in the jungle, 
about one and a half to two or three miles an hour, 
thus much time is wasted in getting from one beat 
to another. 

About two o'clock we would halt for lunch under 



KEEPING COOL 199 

a tree. One elephant carried a box of eatables and 
drinks, claret and two bottles of soda-water per man, 
and ice, which we got every two or three days from 
the railway thirty miles distant. Lunch never took 
more than half an hour, and then on we would go 
beating till sunset. Then back to camp to tea. The 
Khan would sit and talk and drink soda-water and 
ice, while we had angostura bitters and soda. After 
tea there was the tub, then dinner at 7.30 and bed 
at nine. 




Me! 



During the heat of the day I wore a handkerchief 
dripping wet under my topee and it kept the back 
of my neck very cool, which is important when the 
sun is so powerful that your guns are too hot to hold 
without gloves. You cannot carry your white 
umbrella while shooting, it is too conspicuous. 

Olivier left us early on the 24th, his leave being 
up, and to signalise his departure Ellis, who had 
been getting gradually better, in spite of my medi- 
cines, now complained of feeling very weak and 
knocked up. So we left him in camp with mosquito 
curtains and a book, and with orders to move to the 



200 TIGER, TIGER, BURNING BRIGHT 
new camp after the heat of the day was over. Of 
course he started bang in the middle of it after 
all. 

The men of this country are lithe, well-made 
chaps, not so squat as the Ghoorkas we enlist into 
our regiments, but with the same Chinese face. 
Their dress shows off the symmetry of their limbs 
at any rate. On nearing our camp in the afternoon 
Bala Khan called at a village where a good local 
shikari lived. This man, a cheery, well-fed Ghoorka, 
was delighted to see us, as a tiger had killed one of 
his cows the previous day and another the day 
before. It lived about a mile away in a little gully, 
and drank at a certain stream. He knew all about 
it and climbed on to an elephant to show the way. 
What a change he brought on us. The day was no 
longer hot, or the way long. We were all very wide 
awake. When we got to the forest he showed us the 
stream where the tiger drank, as a kind of proof of 
words. " Where is his lair ? " we asked. " Oh ! 
there," he replied, pointing generally all over the 
forest. " And where shall we post ourselves ? " 
" Oh ! anywhere. He'll walk past all right. A 
most confiding tiger this ! And the biggest you ever 
saw," etc., etc. Needless to say we beat and beat 
and never saw a sign of him. 

Next we moved from Daka-ki-garhi to Calcutta, 
Ellis going with the baggage. Calcutta was a big 
open plain south of the forest in which we had been. 
The people were more like the ordinary Hindus, 
they lived in wretched straw huts, had less cattle 
and more cultivation than our late neighbours. 
The plain was dotted with solitary peepul trees, 
and big ant-heaps five to eight feet high, similar to 



THE MAHOUT 201 

those in South Africa. I was sorry to see the moun- 
tains dropping away into the distance again. 

It is wonderful how the mahout drives his elephant. 
He sends him on by digging his toes in behind his 
ear, stops him by digging his ankus or hook into the 
front of his forehead and pulling backward, hits him 
hard with the flat of the hook on the side of the head 
when correcting him ; and does much by word of 
command. 




My mahout, Kumala Din. 

On the 6th Ellis left for Bareilly, unable to get 
better in camp and evidently wanting better medi- 
cines than I was able to give him ; better doctoring 
he could not get. 

One day we mounted our elephants and, for a 
change, beat outside the forest, a swamp that runs 
for three or four miles along the edge of the forest. 
It was about two or three hundred yards wide, with 
reeds ten to twelve feet high, in most places dangerous 
bog. Having beat a lot of it without result we were 
wearily on our way to beat the same bit again. At 
last I felt hopeless and was dozing in my howdah as 
" Dandelion " plodded slowly back to our post, when I 



202 TIGER, TIGER, BURNING BRIGHT 

was suddenly awakened by a rifle crack, quickly 
followed by others from the people away behind us. 
This is what happened. A tiger, tired of being 
hunted by us, changed places, and quietly followed 
us in our procession across the open plain. The 
Khan happened to see him, and he and Gore saluted 
the beast with a volley at two hundred yards, which 
the tiger acknowledged with a whisk of his tail and 
a smile as he lightly slipped away into the jungle. 

Boiling with impotent rage we set to work and 
fired his jungle-home and watched for his coming 









Hunting the hunter. 

out, but it was a hopeless job in the huge bog. As 
a bonfire it was a great success. The forest took 
fire, and the view from camp that night was very 
fine. Gore remarked : "By Jove ! We shall be 
put down for six new Nepauls, as sure as fate." 

N.B. — It is customary, when through your own 
carelessness you damage any article in the mess, 
that you pay for six new ones to replace it. 

After our return to camp, between tea and 
sundown, we three, accompanied by Bala Khan, 
walked out and shot a few quail. Quail shooting is 
a nice sporting pastime, but these asses with me must 
needs make foolery of it all by pretending that we 
were tiger shooting. When a quail fell wounded you 
would hear : " For goodness' sake, don't go in on foot 



THE COMMISSARIAT 203 

to him. Wait till the elephants come up," etc. 
Even the Khan himself entered into the spirit of the 
thing. I did expect better sense from the Boy, for he 
could play golf without even wanting to put on black 
crape weepers, and that's more than 1 could do. 

We greatly missed Ellis with his rich Hibernian 
intonation and his : "Now, what I'm going to tell ye 
is thrue, Johnnie. There's only three sardines left 




With a whisk of his tail he disappeared. 

for the five of ye, so it's no use for anny Johnnie 
to take more than his fair share, or there won't be 
enough ! Oi'll take wan and that will make the 
division easier for the four of ye." 

We were not to get any more of his surprise 
delicacies, which were brought specially for Sir 
Baker Russell's benefit. One night we had mince- 
pies made with apricot jam and pie crust ; they had 
got pounded on the journey into a solid mass and 
were served up scalding hot. Luckily we dined in 
the open and so had no carpet, and were able to say 



204 TIGER, TIGER, BURNING BRIGHT 
with Dr. Johnson, to his hostess, when he had done 
with a cup of over-hot tea: " A fool, madam, would 
have swallowed it." A fool might also have swallowed 
the oysters that figured on our bill of fare another night, 
but he would have been a number-one-sized fool. 

While sitting in the howdah during a beat one is 
visited by many strange characters ; spiders with 
gold spots, spiders with long bodies with a splash 
of whitewash on them, opal coloured spiders, praying 
manthis looking like dead straws, and a, to me, new 
kind of manthis, which I called the " Interested 
Manthis " because he looks about him ; all these 
and many others come to one, not to mention flies, 
fleas, bugs, and bushticks. 

On April 30 we were back again in civilisation 
and our shoot was ended. We reached Bala Khan's 
villa at Sherpur before noon, where he made us at 
home during the day. The villa appeared like a 
small square room, full of chandeliers and lamps 
and coloured glass balls, with little rooms round it. 
We lunched, dozed, and talked to the Khan and 
his sons. One of them could talk English and 
would suddenly spring upon us, d ftropos des bottes, 
such a statement as : " The wind is now blowing 
very furiously." 

At Puranpur we were seen into the train by the 
Khan and his sons, after being decorated by him 
with tinsel necklaces, and having our handker- 
chiefs perfumed with pungent sandalwood scent. 
We noticed while at the Khan's house that the 
hot weather had really begun, but by living out 
in it we had got acclimatised. Now that we were in 
a house and looked out at the glare or went out into 
it, we realised that summer had set in. 



CHAPTER XII 

A FRONTIER ROW 

The Value of the North-West Frontier — Village Warfare 
— Readiness and Efficiency — How an Irishman Got a 
Dog and a Breakfast for Nothing — Trouble in the Buner 
Country — The Subaltern in War-time — The Pessimistic 
Afridi — A Terrified Jehu — Sniping — The Morning of 
the Fight — Sir Bindon's Dispositions — The Artillery 
Triumphs — Touching the Button — Rock-rolling — An 
Exciting Race — The Bravest Man I Ever Saw — The 
Enemy in Retreat — An Exhausting Climb — The Tribute 
of a Foe — The Trophies of War — Our Casualties 

WE as a nation are exceptionally fortunate in 
having a valuable training ground for our 
officers in the North- West Frontier of India, 
with real live enemies always ready to oblige in giving 
us practical instruction in the field in tactics and 
strategy, transport and supply, sanitation and ambu- 
lance work, and general staff duties. If Waterloo 
was won on the playing-fields of Eton, there are 
many victories before us that will have been won 
in the more practical fields of the North-West 
Frontier. 

Half of our good soldiers have made their names 
in the first instance in this arena. Critics love to 
disparage our " Sepoy Generals " ; but though 
their tactics may not be suitable to European 
warfare, they have at any rate learnt to handle men 
in difficult circumstances. They have had to adapt 
their common-sense to the situation ; they have 

205 



206 A FRONTIER ROW 

been faced with intricate problems of organisation 
and supply, and above all they have learnt to know 
themselves under the ordeal of war, which cannot 
be imitated even in the best manoeuvres. Those 
that have stood the test must ipso facto be the more 
valuable soldiers for any field. Scarcely a single 
year has passed during the last century in 
which there has not been some fighting on this 
frontier. 

A peace advocate has suggested that, in order to 
stop the numerous little wars in which we indulge 
so frequently in different parts of our Empire, every 
officer should on joining the service be awarded 
half a dozen war medals, and that one should then 
be taken from him for every campaign in which he 
subsequently takes part. The idea in the promoter's 
mind was that wars are brought about by officers 
on the hunt for medals. 

This can scarcely be said to be the case in the 
Afridi and neighbouring countries. Why, the people 
there just live to fight. It is their only joy and their 
only business, their only relaxation. Consequently it 
means constant preparedness and constant efficiency 
on the part of our troops, ready to spring into action 
on the shortest notice to protect the loyal tribes. 
Even the most optimistic politician would hesitate 
to assume that, in India, there would be six months' 
notice in which to train our forces. It is thanks 
to this readiness and efficiency on the part of our 
frontier forces that the frequent outbursts by the 
Hill men are so promptly stamped out in the spark, 
before they can become the blaze which they would 
quickly do under any " Wait and See " policy. The 
average British citizen scarcely realises how much 







GATEWAY OF THE FORT, PATIALA 



A FIGHTING ATMOSPHERE 207 

he owes to the frontier forces in keeping his money 
market steady at home. 

I remember sitting on the ramparts of Fort 
Jamrud, at the entrance to the Khyber Pass, on a 
calm and peaceful evening. Suddenly the crack 
of a rifle echoed round the neighbouring cliffs, 
followed by another and another. 

" What is up ? " I inquired in some excitement. 

" Oh, it is only that the women from that village 
over there are going down to the stream to get 
water. The other village is firing at them : they 
do it almost every day. You see, there is a long- 
standing feud between them. They have been at it 
for years." 

It was characteristic of the country that these 
villages, only about a mile or two apart, though 
both were under British protection, were always 
banging away at each other. Sunk paths had been 
dug by both to their respective water supplies for the 
protection of water-carriers, and their daily work 
was constantly carried out under fire. 

Fort Jamrud stood by like a policeman, watching 
but not interfering unless they actually broke 
the law. The one law that they understood and 
respected was that the Government road, the Great 
Unbroken Road, was sacred ground. It ran between 
the two villages, and the moment one of the villagers 
set foot on the road he was in sanctuary and might 
not be fired upon. 

This incident is merely typical of the restless 
righting atmosphere in which the whole of the border 
tribes are bred and brought up. 

It might seem to many that the soldier's life is 
one continual round of efforts to find sport and to 



208 A FRONTIER ROW 

enjoy himself. Few people realise that it is at the 
same time a profession in which there is plenty of 
hard work even in the piping times of peace. 

Thirty years ago it was different, since the officer 
was then more or less an amateur, and that 
tradition still lives outside the Army. His men 
were then long-service men, trained to vigorous 
discipline by the adjutant and sergeant-majors. The 
commanding officer relied upon his adjutant, and the 
officers relied upon their sergeants, to know the work 
and to do it. In many regiments it was not good 
form to take an evident interest in your work ; and 
to talk shop at mess involved a fine. But the men 
were smart on parade and marched past like clock- 
work. Things have changed since then. The officer 
is now a professional soldier. He has, even in the 
junior ranks, responsibility upon him. It is his 
fault if his men or his horses are not properly 
trained, or fail in efficiency at manoeuvres ; he re- 
cognises this and works in season and out, studying 
and instructing, and he takes a pride in his results ; 
thus duty comes first in his programme and relaxa- 
tion second. The result is an army of keen 
experts, accustomed to act on their own initiative in 
the field as well as in camp. I have to admit that 
the men are better horsemen, better men-at-arms, 
better scouts, and better behaved than their pre- 
decessors, much though I loved these and deplored 
their departure.* 

A characteristic frontier row was that in the Buner 
country. On January 5, 1898, I left Meerut, going 
merely as a student to the front. It was a long and 

* These words were in print before the present war broke out, and 
results to date do not encourage me to modify one of them. 



THE CHARM OF THE IRISH 209 
cold journey northward, past Umballa, Lahore, 
Rawal Pindi to Nowshera. 

On my way up in the train we stopped, at about 
five a.m., at a small roadside station where the up 
and down trains crossed one another. In the hovel 
which stood as a refreshment room I sat down to 
coffee with a stranger who was travelling down- 
country. He was strongly sunburnt, bearded and 
long-haired, dressed in a battered old helmet, 
poshteen (native fur-coat) and worn nether-clothes. 
In our hurried, scratchy meal of three minutes 
duration his brogue told me he was an Irishman, 
while he himself told me how he was just from 
Central Persia, and was full of enjoyment at getting 
back to civilisation once more. Then a whistle 
sounded and he rushed out to catch his train as it 
was moving off. " Pay my bill for me, my dear 
fellow, and good luck to ye," he shouted as he ran off 
along the platform. There a friendly dog ran up to 
greet him. " Begob," he cried, " but that's a good- 
looking baste," and seizing it by the scruff of the neck 
he bundled himself and it into the train and was gone 
— the richer by a breakfast and a dog, all free, gratis, 
and for nothing. 

The first glimpse of war came at Jhelum, where 
the typical British subaltern on service got into the 
carriage, helmet, pistol, poshteen, pipe, and putties, 
but without a fox-terrier for once. He had his roll 
of blankets and a Union Jack. While I was Sherlock- 
Holmesing the reason for the flag, whether it was for 
a general or for a funeral, he asked me to excuse him if 
he turned in to sleep, as he was tired — had brought down 
Hickman's body, killedin a fight up the Khyber the day 
before yesterday, and was now off back to Peshawur. 



2io A FRONTIER ROW 

It is always interesting to note the attitude of the 
average subaltern when there is a chance of fighting. 
Even the veriest youngster becomes something of a 
veteran in his demeanour, short of speech, with a 
certain underlying grimness of purpose in his bearing. 
On the other hand, when you encounter a group of 
men talking wisely of war, of strategy and tactics, 
but in particular of the service they have seen, you 
may always be sure they are non-combatants. 

At Mardan I learnt that General Sir Bindon Blood 
and his column had marched the previous day to 
Katlunga en route to the Buner country and that 
the road was merely a track. Leaving bearer and 
baggage at the Dak Bungalow at Mardan, I took a 
tum-tum, a kind of broken-down dog-cart, to 
Katlunga. It was hard to find a driver to take one ; 
they were afraid of small parties of the enemy being 
about, or that they would be shot at when they got 
near the hills. At last I got a man to go, but after 
trying for a mile or two found that he could not get 
his horse to go. Luckily at this juncture a very 
tattered-looking shay, with a wild-looking Afridi 
driver, came jogging along empty from the direction 
of Katlunga. On being promised double fare he 
agreed to take me there ; but he added that nothing 
would tempt him to go beyond that place, not 
Rs. ioo ! I said nothing. At Katlunga I found, as 
I had expected, that Sir Bindon had gone on that 
morning to Sanghao, close to the pass which he was to 
attack at dawn next day and about eleven miles 
distant. 

So Beatty (Transport Officer) gave me tea while 
his orderly gave a feed to the wretched pony of my 
tum-tum, and off we went again. The poor driver 



A FATALIST 211 

was now very sorry for himself and said that this 
night would be his last. If the enemy did not catch 
us en route and cut him up — he did not seem to care 
what became of me — the cold would at any rate make 
an end of him. I cheered him as well as I could by 
telling him that he could only die once, and this was 
not a bad opportunity, and that if we got into camp 
all right I would present him with one of my own 
blankets, which I afterwards did — my dear old 
brown rug. It was an awful drive with the half- 
dead pony, frightened driver, rotten cart, and bumpy, 
bad road, and a chance of Ghazis. 

The sun set and the moon rose and we toilfully 
bumped along : but I liked it. At last, close under 
the mountains, we sighted the layer of smoke from 
our camp, and, at the same time, the bivouac fires 
of the enemy twinkling all along the heights, which 
gave me a throb of pleasure ; but the driver merely 
moaned hopelessly. About a mile from camp the 
pony gave out and I walked in, the driver carrying 
my bedding. 

Sir Bindon was most kind. I put up in Fraser's 
tent, and met Fitzgerald (of the Blues) and Bunbury 
(Political Officer) at dinner. In camp were two 
Brigades (Generals Jeffry and Meiklejohn) including 
the West Kents, the Buffs, the Highland Light 
Infantry, the 20th and 21st Punjab Infantry, the 
16th Native Infantry, the 10th Field Battery, R.A., 
and two mountain batteries, a few native cavalry 
of the 10th Lancers and Guides, and a battalion 
of native Sappers. 

While we were at dinner — bang ! bang ! bang ! The 
enemy were firing into camp from the neighbouring 
heights. Nobody seemed to take much notice. 



212 A FRONTIER ROW 

This fun is called " sniping." Every ten minutes 
they would give us a dozen shots or so, which some- 
times were replied to with a sharp little volley from 
the Lee-Metfords of one of our piquets. Some shots 
fell among our horses, but did no damage. 

At ten we turned in, and I slept like an angel, only 
to half- wake once to hear the snipers still at it ; but 
they did us no harm. One wit turned out of his 
tent and called to the snipers : "A little more 
elevation, you ! " 

It was a clear, frosty, iced-champagne sort of morn- 
ing. Of course our first anxiety on awaking was to see 
if the enemy were still intending to hold the pass. 
Fraser poked his nose out of the tent door, whilst I 
put my head out under the fly where I lay. There 
on the skyline we could see their standards, so all 
promised well for a fight. 

I did not wait for reveille to wake me, nor did I 
take long to put on my clothes, having most of them 
on already. While we were at breakfast, the leading 
troops were already filing out of camp. Cavalry Scouts 
first, then the Field Artillery, Sappers to make paths, 
etc. ; everybody cheering each other or themselves. 

The Buner country which Sir Bindon was about 
to attack is divided from our territory by a pre- 
cipitous range of mountains passable at three or 
four places, and then only by very difficult tracks. 
The General had sent small forces against each pass 
simultaneously to make feints and, if they found it 
feasible, to invade the country at several points. 
The Sanghao pass he had selected for his main attack, 
because it offered a better chance for the artillery. 
Though called a pass it was merely a foot-track which 
went through a narrow gorge about half a mile long, 



THE SCENE OF THE FIGHT 213 

then turned to the right in a small basin in the hills 
and ascended the heights by zigzags. 

The enemy were holding the heights on their side of 
the basin, and we proposed to make the near side our 
artillery position, while our infantry got through the 
gorge and scaled the heights, one battalion (the 
20th Native Infantry) being meantime sent up the 
mountain to our left, to seize the peak, 2,500 feet 
high, and thence to enfilade the enemy. 

The scene of action was only a mile from our 
camp, and it was so cold that we walked instead of 
riding. We found the mountain batteries moving 
just in front of us, and the Highland Light Infantry 
alongside us, with their pipers playing gaily and the 
men cheering. Enough row to dishearten the Buners 
before a shot was fired. Suddenly boom went the 
first gun, the field artillery came into action at 
nine o'clock exactly, and began shelling the standards 
grouped on the sky-line. These standards were tall 
narrow triangular flags about twelve feet high, with 
tufts of black fur at the head of the flag-pole. 

Presently we climbed the stony scrub-grown hill 
in front of the enemy's position, from which we got 
an excellent view. They were 1,200 yards from us 
and several hundred feet higher than we were, with a 
steep, open, stony slope leading up to their position, 
on which our men could get very little cover from 
their fire. The enemy had made low stone breast- 
works and little forts (sangars) on all the best points 
of their position, and we could see their heads looking 
over them all along the line. In fact they were all 
outside on the face of the ridge till the artillery 
opened fire. 

By 9.30 the mountain batteries had clambered 



214 A FRONTIER ROW 

up our hill with their mules and come into action 
just above us, while the Buffs climbed higher up on 
the same hill to a position whence they could bring 
effective long-range volleys to bear on the enemy's 
sangars. With all three batteries in action there was 




A Buner standard-bearer. 



an infernal din ; every discharge went booming and 
re-echoing all round the basin of hills, and the shells 
exploding at the other end doubled the row. With 
eighteen of these banging off one after another the 
row was incessant. The practice they made too was 
excellent : each shot burst directly against a sangar 
or over a group of standards, and the enemy 



ADVANCING TO THE ATTACK 215 
gradually got very chary of showing themselves. But 
directly there was a lull in the firing up came all 
their heads again. Here and there a man got up on 
a rock and waved his sword and harangued his pals 
or yelled at us, while others in the sangars stood up 
and reloaded their long muzzle-loading jezails. 

They fired a few shots at us now and then, but the 
distance was too great for them : nevertheless we 
found it best not to stand in too much of a group near 
the General, as some whistled over us. It was 
curious to see how coolly the enemy took the artillery 
fire, with the shells bursting close round them : 
they evidently watched the guns, and directly one 
fired they bobbed down till the shell had burst, when 
up they all came again like jacks-in-the-box ; I saw 
one or two hit while doing this. 

During this preliminary artillery fire, the infantry, 
almost unseen by the enemy, were creeping into the 
basin below, through the gorge : first the 21st 
Punjabis, then the Highland Light Infantry, then 
the West Kents and finally the 16th Bombay 
Infantry ; but it took them over two hours to do 
this half mile of narrow rocky defile, which had been 
barricaded by the enemy. Meanwhile, over a mile 
away to our left, the 20th Native Infantry (Afridis) 
had been sent to climb the mountains and make 
a flank attack on the enemy's position. They started 
at nine ; but, although they were good hill-climbers, 
it was past eleven before they were on the ridge 
ready to commence work. 

There was a bit of a lull in the artillery fire at about 
11.30, when the General, from his post of observation, 
seeing that all was ready, signalled for the attack to 
begin. Just like " touching the button," we did the 



216 A FRONTIER ROW 

rest. The West Kents moved up out of the basin 
at its far right-hand end to the so-called pass on the 
enemy's left. The 21st Punjab Infantry and the 
Highland Light Infantry commenced to clamber up 
the face of the centre of the position, while the 20th, 
upon the mountain, advanced against the peak 
which was held by the enemy's right party. 

The enemy at once rose to the occasion. Fresh 
standards began to appear at all points, coming up 
from their hiding places behind the ridge, until there 
were twenty-nine of them fluttering and waving in 
the breeze. The men crowded into the sangars and 
began blazing away with their long guns at the 
troops below. Then one or two came out and 
prized up great rocks and sent them hurtling down 
the steep face of the mountain. It was fascinating 
to watch one of these rocks rolling over and over, 
faster and faster, knocking chips off other rocks as it 
bounded from them in its mad descent, then taking 
a clear leap over a cliff of a hundred feet or so and 
splashing down among the stones of a water-course, 
going faster till it was flying through the air, then 
plunging out of sight into a ravine, to reappear a 
second later, tearing on lower down, banging from one 
side to the other of the nullah till it disappeared out 
of sight in the thick bush of the basin below us. 

The troops, having been warned of these rock- 
rolling games by experience in previous fights, always 
kept well out of ravines, but it served the enemy's 
ends all the same because, by keeping on the spurs, 
the troops necessarily exposed themselves all the 
more to the rifle fire. But on this occasion the enemy 
did not get a fair chance with their rifles, as our 
guns and our long-distance infantry firing started 



THE BRAVEST MAN I EVER SAW 217 
with redoubled vigour, now the attack had begun, 
and did not leave the enemy alone for a second. 
They could not put their heads over a sangar with- 
out being fired at, and our troops had now got the 
range accurately. 

It was an exciting race to see which regiment 
would get at the enemy first, but it was a very, very 
slow one. Our men crept up in thin little lines like 
ants, just the same colour as the rocks, the glisten 
of their bayonets, which were now " fixed," serving 
best to show us where they were. My new German 
field glasses were perfect beauties. I could see the 
enemy and their gesticulations to one another as 
if they were close by. I could almost understand 
what they were talking about. 

At one point several of the enemy in one of the 
sangars stood up and began openly firing and hurling 
rocks down on the 21st, without as usual bobbing 
down again to take cover. Some of the mountain 
guns turned on them accordingly, and one shell burst 
just on the sangar and another a moment later just 
in front of it. Three men jumped out of the sangar 
and rushed, through the smoke and dust, down the 
face of the hill towards our men. Presently two of 
them stopped, ran along the hill and then turned up 
again over the crest ; but the third man kept on. 
He was a splendid sight, with his loose blue clothes 
flying out behind him and a big glittering sword in 
his hand. He sprang rapidly from point to point, 
still going downwards. At first it seemed as if he were 
making for a big rock to roll down, but he passed it. 
Coming to a bit of a precipice, he stopped a moment 
to find a way of descent ; then, after carefully creeping 
down, once more he took up his running, leaping pace. 



218 A FRONTIER ROW 

We now realised that his intention was to come down 
and attack the British force single-handed. Mean- 
time spits of dust kept jumping up near him : our 
men were firing at him but it did not seem to affect 
him in the least. Suddenly he stopped and went a 




The bravest man I ever saw. 



bit slower. He was hit. He halted for a minute, 
and tearing a piece off his puggree he bound it round 
his wounded knee. Then picking up his weapon he 
came on again, shaking his sword threateningly and 
eager to get at us. It was a grand sight to see this 
one plucky chap braving certain death for his faith. 
Suddenly he tumbled forward, rolled over a rock, 
and lay in a huddled heap — dead ! 



THE ENEMY WITHDRAWS 219 

Now began a great fusillade up on the peak on the 
enemy's right. The 20th up near there had helio'd 
to us that the enemy were holding the peak, and now 
they were driving them out. Unfortunately we could 
see nothing of the fray, it was all beyond the crest : 
but we could hear the cheering and yells and tom- 
tomming of hand-drums, which the 20th carry. 

Suddenly there broke out a lot of firing at the 
other flank of the position ; the West Rents were 
getting close up to the top of the pass, which was 
barricaded and held by the enemy. The guns soon 
cleared the way, however, with a few well-placed 
shells, dropping them one after another exactly into 
the right spot. 

Then the volleys began again, quite loud and 
distinct on the high peak, and soon we saw our men 
not only on the top but also on the enemy's side of it. 
One or two of the standards in the central part of the 
position began to move : they disappeared below 
the skyline, and did not come up again. Soon the 
others followed suit and in a short time none remained 
visible. The 20th on our left and West Rents on the 
right, who had now crowned the pass, were firing 
volleys down into the valley at the back of the 
position. The enemy had left it. There was cheer- 
ing all over the place. 

The Highland Light Infantry and the 21st were 
still toiling up the face of the position, but they 
reached the crest a few minutes before two o'clock 
and laced in a few volleys. 

The guns with one accord cocked their muzzles 
a bit higher and sent their shells high over the ridge 
to burst well on in the valley beyond, among the 
flying enemy. 



220 A FRONTIER ROW 

We climbed down into the basin, where we found 
an orderly with sandwiches and drink ; the field 
hospital there reported no casualties so far. Then 
we started up by the path of the West Kents. It was 
already crowded with carriers laden with the blankets 
and coats of the regiments in front, which they were 
bringing up to enable the men to bivouac for the 
night. Mules were trying to go up, but it was found 
impassable for them. The Sappers, too, were at 
work on the path, so there was a regular jam of us 
all. Scrambling over rocks, crawling under bushes, 
climbing, and blowing like a grampus, I got along 
well, and in an hour I was at the top of the pass, 
minus a pound or two of adipose tissue, but plus a 
great feeling of delight at seeing well into the Buner 
country. 

The enemy had got away out of sight, taking then- 
dead and wounded with them — bloodstains on the 
rocks showed that they had some — and the West 
Kents were already two miles down the valley in 
pursuit of them and occupying a large village, 
which they found full of supplies and sheep, etc. 

Making my way down the face of the heights to 
get back to camp I found it very steep. I followed 
much the track of the Ghazi who had charged down ; 
it was marvellous how he could have come so fast. 
At the place where he had gone slowly I had to 
hang on by my eye-lids, and the man coming after 
me said it was too " hairy " altogether, and took 
his boots off for it. Even then he did not succeed 
until he was, I believe, handed down by four sepoys. 

I went to the place where my friend the Ghazi 
had fallen and found him there, a fine-looking chap 
of about thirty : he had been first wounded in the 



THE SEPOYS PLEASED 221 

right thigh, and then in the face. He was a real 
hero. I quite envied him, for he was the bravest 
man I ever saw. Two sepoys of the regiment that 
shot him came down to have a look at him, and paid 
what I thought a very good mute act of respect to a 
plucky enemy, by stretching him out and laying his 
sheet over him. It seemed strange to me, while 
looking on the impressive sight of the man who had 
deliberately courted death for his faith, and had 
found it, to hear Tommy Atkins from the Boro' 
Road " Wot-cheering " his pal on the next hill. 

After a very warm bit of work in climbing down I 
at last reached the " basin," which was now crowded 
with the mule transport, all being turned back from 
the pass till the road could be made. I got into the 
backward stream and went with it through the 
entrance gorge. Though amongst mules, there was 
no danger of being kicked, they had not room to kick. 

I turned out again to see the regiments returning 
to camp drumming and cheering, as happy as 
possible. The 20th swaggered in with three stan- 
dards and a sword. This latter they had taken from 
a Ghazi who had charged them and whom they had 
captured. They did not fire at him but let him come 
right up to them, and then several went for him at 
once and disarmed him. The sepoys were pleased 
with themselves, but very annoyed with the artil- 
lery, who, they said, had fired too much and had 
driven out the enemy without giving the infantry a 
fair chance of going at him with the bayonet. The 
enemy left twenty killed and sixty wounded. 

We had only one casualty, one man of the 
Highland Light Infantry shot through the chest, also 
one man and two mules fell down the cliffs and were 



222 A FRONTIER ROW 

killed. One officer was hit on his field glasses and one 
sepoy was knocked over by a stone. This absence 
of casualties was due to the work of the artillery, who 
never allowed the enemy to do any straight shooting. 

That night I had a hospital stretcher to sleep on, 
instead of the ground, as the previous night, and I 
looked forward to sleeping well after one of the most 
enjoyable days I had had for a long time, and I was 
not disappointed. I never turned over till reveille, 
and then I turned out and, after a cup of cocoa, was 
off homewards before the others were up. News 
arrived in the night that the cavalry had got over 
the next pass (Pirsan) all right and were well in the 
enemy's country. I sent my blankets in the rickety 
cart in which I had come, and rode the General's 
pony as far as Katlunga, having a sowar orderly as 
escort and to take the pony back. 

This was the sort of field day which is a very 
frequent exercise with the troops in those parts and 
has been so for a hundred years past. From Pesha- 
wur as a centre I attended many of them in the 
Sanghao Pass, the Malakand, the Bara Valley, etc. 
The week before I reached Peshawur the inhabi- 
tants had been disturbed by a good deal of firing in 
the night, the morning explanation of which was 
that a party of Afridis had surrounded the guard- 
house of one of the regiments and had attempted to 
rush it in order to obtain a few rifles : but the 
sentry was too alert for them, he sprang into the 
guard room and slammed the door in their faces. 
The guard promptly opened fire on the marauders 
through the windows, to which they replied for some 
time, and then found it advisable to clear back to 
their hills before they got cut off. 



TENNIS IN WAR-TIME 223 

Peshawur, being so central to the raids and rows 
of the frontier, is very little disturbed by war. I 
was sitting watching a tennis tournament there one 
afternoon with a number of ladies, nurses, and 
children. The booming of guns could be heard in 




The 5th Bengal Cavalry. 

the distant passes, and there passed along at the back 
of our seats a procession of dhoolies, stretchers, 
and ambulances, bringing in dead and wounded 
from the field. But it created very little excite- 
ment, and the game went on without interruption, 
for that to the players was an everyday incident. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE JUNGLE PEOPLE AND SOME OTHERS 

Curious Playmates — The Tragic Story of Algernon — 
Snakes and Their Ways — An Unpleasant Bedfellow — 
An Ungrateful Patient — Some Good Friends — The 
Clown's Mishap — A Murderer — A Curious Trait — 
Bucephalus — A New Use For a Melon Bed — A Horse 
for a Lady — The Soul of the Camel — The Bullock's 
Quest — Buck-hunting with Cheetahs — Black Buck 
Shooting — The Panther's Ruse — The Moses of the 
Jungle — A Sprightly Companion — A Panther in Search 
of His Tail — The Trial that Failed 

THE worst nightmare that I can imagine is 
an India without animals, tamed and 
untamed. It is a popular idea that the 
sportsman's only interest in birds, beasts, and fishes is 
as objects for his bloodthirsty skill in killing them. 
A big-game hunter must know a good deal about the 
habits of the beasts he tracks, and soon he becomes 
keenly interested in them as personalities. I have 
already told something of the remarkable personality 
of the pig — by the way, I can never quite forgive Mr. 
Rudyard Kipling for leaving out of The Jungle 
Book due mention of the king of the country he was 
writing about. Although I have given much space 
to the boar, but not more than he deserves, it 
may be interesting here to show another aspect of 
his remarkable personality. 
I had in my possession at one time a young wild 

boar whom, for want of a better name, I called 

224 



THE EDUCATION OF ALGERNON 225 
Algernon. He lived loose in my compound and, 
although surrounded by men and horses at all 
times of the day, he never showed any disposition 
towards becoming tame. It is true he would come 
out when one brought food to him, and I think he 
knew the difference between a white man and a 
black ; for when I offered it to him he would approach 
very suspiciously and make snaps at the food and dart 
away again. When, however, my native servant 
took the food out, the little brute went straight for 
him, cutting at his legs with his diminutive tushes, 
and driving him off with much skipping and laughter 
before feeling sufficiently master of the situation to 
tackle his meal. 

It was an interesting sight to watch this future 
little fighter training himself and developing his 
activity by galloping round and round in circles, 
and especially in a figure of eight past an old stump 
of a tree, which he used to cut at with his tushes in 
passing, first to the right hand then to the left, so 
that he could deliver a cut truly and well when going 
at full speed. He was also wonderfully active in 
jumping fences about the grounds. 

We had an old English mare which spent part of 
the day grazing in the compound. She was an 
exceptionally good pigsticker, owing to her natural 
hatred of the pig, which was so great that she needed 
no guiding or spurring when out hunting ; she wanted 
to catch him on her own account as much as for the 
rider's sake. When this mare saw Algernon playing 
about the compound she used to go for him with 
all the speed and vice at her command, and I 
thoroughly believe that Algernon enjoyed the fun of 
leading her on and running away before her. He 





226 THE JUNGLE PEOPLE 

would jink and turn and take impossible fences in 
order to puzzle her, and she followed him with ears 
back and teeth showing, anxious to trample and bite 
him if she could only reach him, which he took good 
care she never did. But Algernon, in spite of his 
cunning and his merry ways, met with a tragic end. 
A lot of the dogs of the regiment got together when 
we were away at a field day and hunted poor 
Algernon down. He had evidently fought them 
bravely, but was left bleeding and so severely torn 
by them that we had to put him out of his misery. 




Mare-baiting: Algernon's fun. 

The deed was done not with a pistol or a club, but, 
as was due to his race, with a spear through the 
heart. 

Snakes are one of the great drawbacks to life in 
India in the rainy season. They get swamped out 
of their holes then and are apt to prefer a dry house 
to a wet garden. Often too in the summer, when 
everything is baking hot, they like to slide into the 
cool, wet bathroom and lie alongside your tub. 
If they were harmless it would not matter, but so 
many of them are nasty poisonous fellows. The 
hooded cobra is common, and so is the krait, a 
little thin chap of active habits. He has an un- 
pleasant way of lying stretched out perfectly straight 
along the edge of a rug, so that you don't notice 



THE WAYS OF SNAKES 227 

him till you step on him as you are going to bed ! 
He is very clever at climbing up a door, wriggling up 
between a half-open door and the door-post until he 
gets to the top, and there he stretches himself flat 
along the top of the door and falls off on to you when 
you shut it ! A native messenger, opening the 
orderly room door one morning early, found a krait 
coiled round the bolt. He only found it when he had 
caught hold of it and had got bitten. He died 
within a few hours. 

One of our hospital servants sleeping on his 
bedstead out in the open for the sake of coolness 
was found dead next morning with a swollen arm 
and two tiny punctures in it, showing where the 
cobra, who had apparently endeavoured to share his 
bed, had bitten him. 

There was a great hubbub in my compound one 
evening, and one of my syces was brought into the 
house to be doctored. He had put his hand into a 
hole in the wall where he kept his horse-brush and 
had been bitten by a cobra who was lying in there ; 
an immense cobra, judging from the pain of the bite. 
To cut and suck the wound was the work of a 
moment for me — except that I got somebody else 
to do the sucking. Then I reluctantly got out my 
treasured bottle of old brandy and poured some of it 
down his throat and had him walked up and down 
with orders that he must be heartily smacked and 
kept awake at any cost. More brandy was ad- 
ministered and the result was that instead of showing 
any signs of dying he got into the singing stage, and 
then became abusive, and finally wanted to fight any 
six men, black or white, who would care to face him. 
As he seemed now in a promising condition for 



228 THE JUNGLE PEOPLE 

living, we left him and sallied out to kill the snake. 
We jabbed and pried the hole without result, and 
finally, after rigorous search, we discovered a little 
scorpion there which had been the cause of all the 
trouble. The subsequent smacking which that syce 
got was not entirely meant to save his life, but in 
some sort to get a return for the bottle of brandy 
lost to me and for the trouble and anxiety he had 
caused. 

In India I possessed no better friends than the 
horses I owned and rode. If you want to know to 
what degree of intelligence and sportsmanship a 
horse can attain you must play polo or stick pigs. 
The man who has never pursued the boar may be 
inclined to regard the horse as a mere pawn in the 
game, participating only by virtue of his rider's 
guidance ; but, as I think I have shown in a former 
chapter, he is capable of thoroughly enjoying the 
sport. 

Horses have their idiosyncrasies just as men and 
subalterns, and the more you become the pal of your 
steeds, the more you will learn of their characters. 
My second charger, the "Clown," was a very jolly 
horse, but he had a weakness for lots of hair on his 
heels, which in consequence looked more like a cart- 
horse's, and he strongly objected to anyone cutting 
or pulling it out. One morning I had three farriers 
up from the barracks who came and did it to make 
him presentable. As I was breakfasting at the mess, 
a syce came running in to say that ' ' Clown' ' was dying. 
I went out to see him and found him lying senseless 
in his stable. He had tried all he could to stop them 
clipping him and at last had tried, apparently, to 
jump out of his skin, and in doing so had caught his 



JUSTIFIABLE HOMICIDE 229 

head an awful crack against the wall, which had 
stunned him. One of the farriers, instead of being 
alarmed, utilised the occasion, saying : " Come on, 
boys, let's clip him while he's silly," and they did so. 
He recovered consciousness in about a quarter of an 
hour and was led about staggering as if he were 
drunk. For some weeks he had to have cold water 
trickling on his head, and he finally recovered 
entirely ; but he had cracked his skull and one could 
feel the break across his forehead. 

Shortly after this the "Clown" sadly disgraced 
himself by killing one of Christie's syces by kicking 
him in the spleen. I had gone to Christie's bungalow 
to see him and he said : " Come for a drive with me, 
and my syce shall take the " Clown " back to your 
bungalow." I was at that time standing behind the 
horse, leaning with my arms on his croup, looking 
along his back, no one holding him, for he was the 
quietest animal possible and had never attempted 
to kick in the saddle. We went for our drive and 
when we came back we heard that the syce had been 
kicked by him and was very bad. Later on he died. 
It was agreed by all that the syce must have done 
something extraordinary to frighten the horse. 

I once owned a horse who had formerly been 
trained by a native. He was a splendid pigsticker, 
but he hated having his bridle put on, and he was 
a real fighting savage when one tried to do it. We 
found the only way was to throw him down before 
attempting it, and then to sit on his head and prise 
his mouth open and force the bit between his 
unwilling teeth. After that, when you were once 
on his back, he was a charming mount and a perfect 
pigsticker. But he had an evil, villainous touch of 



230 THE JUNGLE PEOPLE 

the savage in him, and though, in the course of time, 
I fell with or off most of my horses, this one was too 
clever to fall himself, and his nasty temper so im- 
pressed me that I, for my part, never dared to fall 
off him for fear he should eat me. When following 
a boar he seemed eager to vent all his rage upon it, 
and would follow its every twist and turn, straining 
every nerve to overtake and kill it. 

On one occasion I bought a mare on her advertised 
description. She arrived by train with a note from 
her late owner saying that her only fault was that 
she was difficult to mount, being extremely nervous. 
As she had been two days on the journey, and boxed 
up most of the time, I rather expected that the 
difficulty of mounting her would not, at any rate, be 
lessened. But I was somewhat surprised to find 
that, beyond a sort of stiffening of herself and an 
apprehensive look at me out of the corner of her eye, 
she took my mounting quite quietly and without a 
movement. As I settled myself comfortably in the 
saddle, I thought : "It just shows that her last 
master had not that indefinable something that binds 
a lover of horses to his horse, that mutual sympathy 
that will — well, I think we might go ahead now." 
The mare was still standing like a rock, so I gave her 
just a gentle kick with my heels to give her the office 
to move. She moved all right, and so did I ; that 
indefinable, bond was somewhat loosened. What 
happened was not quite explainable, it was so 
sudden. 

At any rate, the next moment I found myself 
landed, and standing on my feet near her head ; and 
then she went bang, tearing mad. Not a bit content 
with depositing me, she wanted to complete the job 



A DAUGHTER OF BUCEPHALUS 231 

and get rid of her saddle. What a time we had ! 1 
will not go into it here, but we had ten minutes' 
genuine fun while she worked off some of her 
hysterics, for that I verily believe is what buck- 
jumping amounts to. When she had done we 
exercised her by lunging her until she was tired and 
glad to rest. Thereupon I essayed to mount her, and, 
after she had fought and struggled a bit, I managed 
to get into the saddle and she went like a lamb. Day 
after day we had the same struggle at mounting : two 
men held her, we blindfolded her and fed her on 
carrots the while, but mounting was always a sort 
of volcanic performance. But she never repeated 
the standing rigid and the violent buck of the first 
day, and the moment that one was on her back she 
was a charming animal, highly strung, but sensible, 
clever, and docile. 

One day, when riding alone out on the plains, I was 
obliged to dismount to pick up something, and the 
thought came to me : " How shall I ever get on her 
again without help ? " However, I made the at- 
tempt, and she stood quite still and quiet, and I at 
last discovered that the whole cause of the unusual 
trouble at mounting was that she hated having her 
head held by other people. It is true she was not 
quite so nice when a stranger wanted to mount her, 
but she had no objection to her groom, or to myself. 
She was therefore not unlike Bucephalus, as des- 
cribed by an ancient historian. 

" Of Alexander's horse ' Bucephalus,' so long as 
he was naked and without furniture, he would surfer 
any man to come on his back ; but afterward, being 
saddled and furnished, he could endure none but 
Alexander, his Master. For, if any other offered 



232 THE JUNGLE PEOPLE 

to come near him for to ride him, he first of all 
terrified him with his neighing voice and afterwards 
trod him under foot if he ran not away. 

" When Alexander was in the Indian war, and 
riding on this horse in a certain battle, he performed 
many valiant acts, and, through his own improvid- 
ence, fell into a certain ambush of his foes, from 
which he had never been delivered alive but for the 
puissancy of his horse, who seeing his master beset 
with so many enemies received divers darts into his 
own body, and so with violence pressed through the 
middest of his enemies, having lost much blood and 
received many wounds, ready to die for pain, nor 
once stayed his course till he had brought his 
master, the King, safe out of the battle and set him 
upon the ground, which being performed, he gave up 
the ghost and died, as it were comforting himself 
with this service, that by his own death he had saved 
the life of such a King. For which cause, after 
Alexander had gotten the victory, in that very place 
where his horse died he built a city and called it 
' Bucephalon.' " 

A melon-bed serves only one useful purpose so far 
as I know, and that is to cure a fidgety horse of his 
restlessness. I saw one so used by Gopi Singh, the 
aide-de-camp of His Highness the Rana of Dhole- 
pore, in this wise. He was riding a j erky, fidgeting 
horse, which, considering the heat of the morning, 
was, as the British soldier would describe it, "a 
regular treat." At last his patience came to an end, 
and he quietly remarked: "I'll frighten the brute 
into keeping quiet." Taking him short by the head 
he rammed him at a low fence surrounding an 
open melon bed ; the horse cleared the fence but 



A HORSE TO SELL 233 

floundered heavily amongst the melons. Gopi seemed 
to land on his feet clear of the horse, with the reins in 
hand, and in a few seconds he had got it on to its legs 
again, and was in the saddle and back over the fence. 
The horse went like a sheep for the rest of the ride. 

The true key to horsemanship seems to me to be a 
thorough knowledge of the psychology of your 
mount. Like a woman, a horse is subject to 
moods, and, to continue the analogy, it is necessary 
to coax them out of him with subtlety and a 
knowledge of what is likely to do the most good and 
at the same time do little or no harm. 

In India, when anyone has a horse or other 
property to dispose of, he inserts an advertisement 
to that effect in the daily newspapers, giving full 
details as to nature, quality, and price. This 
system is carried out to a far greater extent in India 
than in England, and since the advertisement nearly 
always bears the name of the advertiser, fair and 
satisfactory sales as a rule result. Owing to the 
great distances that lie between the stations, many 
of the buying and selling transactions are carried on 
by post. Thus a varied, and often amusing, corre- 
spondence comes to the man who has offered his 
belongings to the bids of the public. A short time 
back one seldom advertised a horse for sale without 
receiving by return of post a communication from 
some harmless old Anglo-Indian idiot, whose hobby 
it was to ask a string of questions about every horse 
that he saw advertised for sale, such as : " Has he 
two white hind legs ? Has he a white nose ? Does 
he rear ? " and other such odd questions as must in 
some instances have subjected him to a good deal of 
banter. 



234 THE JUNGLE PEOPLE 

I have before me a correspondence that took 
place between a certain sporting surgeon-major and 
an equally sporting old lady. The doctor had 
advertised a horse for sale as " a dun S. B. G." (stud- 
bred gelding) " aged, good hack and pigsticker, and 
a fast trapper, believed sound, price 200 Rs." The 
would-be Amazon immediately wrote : " Please 




A fizzer under a saddle." 



state colour and sex of the horse you advertise, and 
tell me, is he perfectly free from tricks and vice in 
harness ? You say he is aged ; what is his age ? Is 
he a willing and free mover ? Is he clean-skinned 
and healthy ? Has he any defects about his body ? 
Will there be any reduction in his price ? Will you 
give your word that he will suit (sic) ? And what 
about the railway fare — who stands that ? ,; 

This catechism might have taken many an owner 
rather aback, but the doctor at once perceived the 



THE OONTa 235 

proper treatment to adopt, and replied as follows : 
" Madam, In reply to your letter of the 9th inst., I 
beg to state that my dun S. B. gelding, aged twenty 
years last grass, is in harness as docile as the 
sheep, but a nzzer under the saddle. Barring 
an attack of Acaris scabiei his skin is as spotless 
as that of the proverbial lamb, and as for health he 
does not know what dyspepsia is. His only defect 
is that his tail is set crooked. As regards his breed, 
he is by Will-o'-the-Wisp out of Brian Boriuhe. For 
a horse of his singular parts I could not think of 
accepting a reduction. Hoping to have the pleasure 
of sending him to you. I am, etc., etc." 

Of the camel little can be said to his advantage. 
He is not a lovable beast. " 'E's a devil an' an 
ostrich an' a orphan-child in one." He has, however, 
one supreme quality — philosophy. He is the most 
stolid of beings, apparently entirely indifferent as 
to what is going on round him so long as he can chew 
the cud and curl his lips in contempt at men. 
Wounds he will accept with philosophic calm, 
merely giving expression to a grunt or an annoyed 
gurgle when he finds that his inside has been 
perforated by a bullet, and this is the only sign he 
makes. Such an animal is extremely useful in war. 

Another beast valuable for draught purposes in 
war time is the bullock. He has all the stolid 
characteristics of the camel, only more so. He does 
not even grunt when perforated. He is invaluable 
for taking into action the guns that the elephant has 
hauled to the scene of operations ; for the elephant, 
in spite of his size, is useless " when the guns begin 
to shoot." 

From long association with the bullock — and I 



236 THE JUNGLE PEOPLE 

once went so far as to lecture on the subject — I am 
convinced that he came into the world in order to 
look for a suitable spot in which to lie down and die. 
When he is pulling his great antediluvian wooden 
" hackery " (cart) with its great creaking wheels, he 
does it in an uninterested way, at the rate of a mile 
an hour, with his nose near the ground, always looking 
for the place. Mile after mile, day after day, 
sometimes for years he patiently carries on his 
quest, quite unmoved by all that goes on around 

<**- _ 




The cheetah's approach. 

him, till one day he finds the spot. There is no 
excitement, no cheering or skipping about ; he 
simply lies down on it, chews the cud and quietly 
dies, entirely unresponsive to kicks and twistings of 
his tail. He is merely carrying out his destiny. 

The Maharajah of Patiala introduced us to a novel 
form of sport when he gave us an exhibition of buck- 
hunting with cheetahs. The cheetah is exactly like 
a big deer-hound with a leopard's skin and tail, and 
a cat's head. He is carried on a bullock cart, with 
his eyes hooded with a leathern cap. When a buck 
is seen the cart is slowly driven round him in a grad- 
ually decreasing circle. The buck does not suspect 
a cart, and will let it come within fifty or sixty 






. \ 




HUNTING WITH A CHEETAH 237 

yards of him. The leathern cap is then taken off 
the cheetah's eyes, his head is turned by the keeper 
towards the buck and he is released. He at once 




In full cry. 



slips off the cart and walks towards the buck with a 
quick, springy step and, on getting within thirty or 
forty yards of his prey, he makes a rush at an 
incredible speed, overtaking the buck, who is no 



^k<ii< 





Aif unrehearsed effect. 

slow mover, with enormous, sinuous bounds, till he 
springs on to his back and, biting his neck, kills him. 
In the first run our cheetah, " going all he knew," 
came suddenly head over heels in a bit of rough 
ground, and shook himself so severely that he did not 



238 THE JUNGLE PEOPLE 

run well for the rest of the evening. In one run the 
cheetah overtook the buck and, springing on to his 
back, brought him to the ground ; but missing his 
grip he slipped off and the buck sprang up and was 
away again before he could catch him. Directly the 
cheetah finds the buck has the best of him he stops 
short in a most unenterprising way, and makes no 
further effort to catch him. His keeper then comes 
after him, offering him a ladle full of blood or a bit 
of cheese, and so recaptures him. 

One of the minor pleasures of cantonment life in 
India is the sport of black buck shooting ; it gives 
one healthy exercise with an object, and good meat 
and pretty horns as a reward for good work. To 
many there is a sameness about the sport which 
makes it pall after a time ; but, personally, I never 
failed to enjoy the stalking for which it opened a 
field. Once at Muttra I undertook to shoot a black 
buck within a quarter of an hour of leaving my house. 
It looked an impossible feat if I took the ordinary 
roads into the country round about ; but, instead 
of doing that, I rode down to the river bed and 
straight across into a wilderness of ravines on the 
opposite bank. Here within ten minutes of starting 
I came across a fair buck. It was in the rainy 
season when the grass was up and green, and I had 
had my khaki clothing dyed a brilliant olive to match 
the surroundings. I was creeping cautiously to- 
wards my quarry when I heard a sort of snort behind 
me. Looking quickly over my shoulder, I found 
that I was being followed by a chinkara, or ravine 
deer. His curiosity was excited by seeing what he 
supposed to be a big lump of grass on the move. 
Twisting my forward half round I had a hurried 



BLACK BUCK 239 

snapshot at him which luckily struck him through 
the heart. He had a splendid head of his kind, 
which when measured proved to be almost a record 
for India. It was a remarkable fluke to get him thus 
close to the house and without stalking him myself. 

Among the several black buck I have shot, none 
gave me greater satisfaction than the one I got when 
on the line of march with my regiment. Far out on 
the plain near our road we could see a fine buck 
keeping abreast of us as we went along, evidently 
very lively and very startled at our presence there. 
I rode off in his direction, with a sort of hope of 
getting a shot at him with my pistol, but he would 
not allow me to come anywhere near him, and there 
was little or no cover by which I could approach. At 
one point on the plain, however, there was a pair of 
brick pillars supporting a wheel above a well, and 
presently I managed to bring these in line between 
the buck and myself, and thus concealed from him I 
galloped as hard as I could up to the well and sprang 
off my horse. Cautiously peeping round I saw the 
buck standing at a distance of about eighty yards 
from me, facing my way and gazing suspiciously at 
the cover behind which I was hiding. I took aim 
and fired, and the buck turned and sprang away, 
galloping a few yards and then jumping a low mud 
wall. I turned at once and mounted my horse to go 
after him, but when I looked for him after mounting 
I could see no sign of him anywhere about the plain, 
and on riding up to the wall I found him lying dead 
just beyond it. The shot had entered at the point 
of the shoulder and the bullet had shattered itself 
into his heart. 

Once I made a lucky shot and got a really big 



240 THE JUNGLE PEOPLE 

black buck when riding home after dark. It was 
bright moonlight and the animal ran across the road 
in front of me and then stood gazing while I passed. 
I took as good an aim as the light would allow, when 
it was very difficult to see my sights, and fortunately 
shot him dead. My luck was not out when, on 
another occasion, I was pursuing a small herd of buck, 
and from my horse I fired at one just at the moment 
when a smaller buck came in between us. The small 
buck bowled over dead, shot through the neck, and I 
was looking regretfully at the larger buck who was 
galloping away in the distance, when suddenly he 
sank and rolled over also. My bullet had gone through 
the neck of the first buck and into the one beyond, 
and so I got two at one shot. 

The jungle animals will often show something 
which, if not actual reasoning power, is certainly 
closely akin to it. I very well remember a panther 
whose strategy very nearly saved his skin. During 
a tiger beat a panther was seen by the line, but just 
at the end he turned back between the elephants. 
The beat was changed about, and we forward guns 
were sent to await him at the opposite end of the 
cover. I was posted on a high river-bank. As the 
line approached the panther was reported just in 
front of it moving towards us. Presently I saw him, 
or rather the spot where he was, the grass waving 
and just a sort of outline of his back as he cantered 
along between me and the next gun. 

Cramming our hathies (elephants) along at full 
speed we shoved on and in a few minutes had posted 
ourselves round the grass on its landward side. The 
line of beating elephants formed in the grass and very 
soon Mr. Spots was seen moving before them 



MR. SPOT'S RUSE 241 

towards us. His spots were not noticeable ; he looked 
merely like a great tawny cat, just like a lioness. I 
could not shoot for some time as he kept in a direct 
line between me and the beating elephants. When 



\r- 



-3 



M, 



i*i&v& 



1 m v<i -f 




w -?> i_r> 



The panther who reasoned. 

he moved to the flank of them I fired, and almost at 
the same moment Gore, to whom he was nearest, 
fired too, and he fell in a heap. 

All the elephants formed up round him and we sat 
admiring his fine spotted skin while he gave a few 
final gasps. To make sure that he was dead my 

R 



242 THE JUNGLE PEOPLE 

mahout threw his iron driving hook (gusbar or 
ankus) on to the beast a couple of times, recovering 
it again by its lanyard, and he did not move. As 
he still gasped, we cleared the ring of elephants from 
one side of it for somebody to give a final shot as 
coup de grace. Somebody, it was not I, fired, and 
missed ; at least the shot went through his ear. 
The panther, thereupon, finding his little ruse 
was no good, got up and trotted away ! Another 
shot fired after him annoyed him and he turned round 
and came for us. Yet another shot rolled him over, 
but still he came on, then two simultaneous shots 
dropped him stone dead. If he had not turned back 
his ruse would in all probability have saved his life. 

Once when out shooting and pigsticking in the 
Kadir near Meerut a native gave us information 
that there was a panther in a certain bit of grass 
jungle which he pointed out to us. Let me here say 
what is the difference between a panther and a 
leopard. It is a frequent topic for argument 
between people who fancy themselves in natural 
history. My version, and it is quite good enough 
for all ordinary purposes, especially as it auto- 
matically guides you in sticking to the point with 
which you began your argument, is this : the two 
animals are one and the same generically, but the 
panther living at ease in the plains grows fat and big, 
while the leopard living a hard life in the mountains 
and crags remains thin and active. The memoria 
technica for remembering this is that the panther, 
being fat and big, pants ; while the leopard, skipping 
about the crags, leps from rock to rock. 

This is a digression. To continue my story. 
We directed our elephants into the patch of high 



HUNTING A TAIL 243 

grass in which the panther was said to be. Presently 
as we swished through it my animal gave a sudden 
half-shy and then paused, sniffing with her trunk. 
Peering down into the grass I suddenly saw a small 
patch of spotted, furry hide alongside a tuft of grass ; 
it looked like the forefoot of the panther and was 
twitching as if about to start to run, so I took quick 
aim and fired with my rifle though the grass immedi- 
ately behind it in order to hit the animal in the body. 
No result. The small patch still remained twitching 
and finally moved, and then I saw that it was a 
wee little panther cub just able to crawl. So I slid 
off my elephant and picked it up and took it home 
with me. 

The cub grew and flourished and became, as a 
kitten, a great favourite with everybody, especially 
with my fox-terrier pup. These two spent most of 
their time gambolling and rolling over together, 
with intervals in which both lay fast asleep to 
recuperate. After a time the kitten began to grow 
into a lumbering hobbledehoy, with great loose 
limbs and strong j aws, and in size about double that 
of the dog. Then their games began to result very 
frequently in yowls on the part of the dog. The 
cub's mouthing became painful to him, as indeed 
it also did to me, and my hands soon began to be 
punctured and torn with his endearments. 

Then he developed the stage of being hunted by 
his own tail. He would career round the garden at 
full speed, and into the house, on to the table in my 
sitting-room, whisk round swishing everything off 
with a crash, then with a bound he would clear the 
sofa and pounce on to the matting, which he would 
scrabble up with his claws ; then out of the window 



244 THE JUNGLE PEOPLE 

like a streak of yellow paint, into the verandah and 
on to my breakfast table, where a smash up of 
crockery sent him off in a pretended panic round the 
garden again. I could never feel angry with him, he 
made me laugh so. He was at no time what could 
be called down-hearted. He used to walk out with 
me and the dogs ; but as he grew older, instead of 
becoming more obedient like the dogs, he became 
more and more wild and unruly. 

One day when out walking I met some ladies whom 
I knew. I stood talking to them with the panther 
and dogs at heel. Presently the breeze caught the 
lace edging of a lady's petticoat, which at once 
attracted the interest of Mr. Spots. He pricked his 
ears, his head gradually went more and more side- 
ways as he gazed with fascination on the twinkling 
lace. " What is it ? " he thought. " Is it alive ? No. 
Yes, it must be. I believe the darned thing is 
laughing at me." Phit — chumm ! and he suddenly 
sprang, claws and all, at the lace. The lady whisked 
her skirt out of the way with a scream. This was 
too much ; he set to work to claw the whole thing in 
dead earnest, and I don't know where he would have 
stopped if I had not got him by the collar and hauled 
him off by main force. But in spite of these little 
outbreaks he was a great delight to all of us. 
Shortly afterwards I had to leave India and I offered 
my charming panther to anyone who would like 
to have him. I gave a twenty-four hours' trial of 
him to anyone who thought of taking him. Lots 
of people tried him but none applied for him as a 
permanent gift, so I eventually sold him to Jamrach. 



CHAPTER XIV 

" THE ELEPHANT'S A GENTLEMAN " 

My Sentiment About the Elephant— His Mathematical 
Mind — " Dandelion's " Idiosyncrasies — Her Courage in 
the Face of an Enemy— The Elephant Who Died— A 
Problem in Sanitation— The Jungle Shirj— Sea Legs— 
The Genius of the Elephant— His Timidity— Jock's 
Victory— The Duchess of Connaught's Adventure— 
The Elephant's Caution— He Utilises Human Material— 
A Malefactor Flogged by Elephants— The Elephant in 
War — An Elephant Fight 

OF all the animals in India none exceed the 
elephant in personality, and therefore he 
must have a chapter to himself. 
I could never bring myself to shoot an elephant. 
I have been among them in the wilds and have had 
to do with them tamed ; I love to watch them, and 
I like to use them, but my respect for them is far too 
great to allow me to shoot them. It strikes me as an 
impertinence to put an end to a wise old creature a 
hundred and fifty years old and of such massive 
proportions. He is a link with prehistoric times, and 
I would as soon blow up the Tower of London as 
shoot him. I have been glad to find myself sup- 
ported in this idea by that splendid young sportsman 
and explorer, the late Boyd Alexander. He, too, 
confessed his dislike for shooting an elephant, and 
when he had actually done so his remorse for bringing 
about death on so large a scale forbade him from ever 
repeating the experiment. 

245 



246 THE ELEPHANT'S A GENTLEMAN 

There is something uncannily human about the 
mind and doings of an elephant, and no one recog- 
nises this more fully than the mahouts, the men who 
look after them, whose influence over the great 
beasts is remarkable. If any have doubts on this 
subject they need only go to Burmah and watch 
the elephants piling teak, to see that they have a 
mathematical mind and an idea of arranging the 




The triumph of mind over matter. 

logs with absolute symmetry and of applying their 
strength in the best way for balancing and levering 
the heavy timber. 

The elephant which I used in Nepaul had a name 
which resembled " Dandelion/' and therefore I always 
called her by that name. She was a delightful beast 
to ride, and seemed to enjoy raising you on her 
trunk to put you on her back, and would then carry 
you with the greatest care, yet with speed and ease, 
through the jungle. When standing at the jungle 
side it seemed impossible for her to be still for a 
single moment. She was perpetually dancing a 



THE ELEPHANT WHO DIED 247 
kind of shifty jig from one foot to the other. When 
she was not blowing sniffs of dust over her shoulders, 
she kept swishing the flies off with the branch of a 
tree. Quick and restless, she was never still ; but 
the moment game was afoot she " froze," and stood 
like a rock. 

It did not matter what the nature of the game 
might be, peacock or jackal, partridge or tiger, all 
were alike to her ; and pushing through the jungle 
she feared none of them. A wounded tiger might 
charge, roaring and clawing, and spring at her head, 
but she stood it like a rock. One animal alone she 
did fear, and that was a boar. It was enough for 
her to scent him or to hear him rushing through the 
underwood, and she would turn tail in the neatest 
way and shuffle off in the greatest haste for safety. 

The elephant is a noble animal for transport, since 
.he can carry such enormous weights and can drag 
what would break the hearts of many horses. But 
he has his drawbacks wheri on service. He takes a 
great deal of feeding with expensive fodder. When 
he gets a sore back it is an enormous thing to deal 
with ; and when he dies he is an awful clog on the 
sanitary arrangements. One died at Kandahar in 
1 881, and I have not got the remembrance of him 
out of my nostrils yet. He was too big to move, so 
they tried to burn him, but only succeeded in 
roasting portions of him ; the remainder they tried 
to bury by piling pyramids of earth over him, but, 
as the days passed, the earth was found not to conceal 
all that was underneath it. When a change of wind 
came and blew in the direction of Kandahar, it 
became a question whether or not the city should be 
evacuated. In the end adventurous spirits were 



248 THE ELEPHANT'S A GENTLEMAN 
sent with slabs of guncotton on the end of poles ; 
these they inserted in strategical spots within the 
carcase and blew it to bits. The different portions 
were then harnessed on to camels and towed away to 
places where they could be buried separately. 

I have often thought, when out pigsticking in the 
Kadir, how like to a ship an elephant is, from a 
spectator's point of view. The great sea of long 
grass, with the distant belts of trees on either bank 
of the Jumna, might .veil be the Thames at the Nore, 
with a fresh breeze blowing across it. Then comes 
an elephant " reaching " across, only the upper part 
of him showing above the grass, heaving along and 
passing my horse exactly like a sailing-vessel passing 
a fishing-boat. When you are on the elephant he is 
even more like a vessel, as he rolls along surging 
through the grass and from time to time swishing 
water from his trunk over his chest. Even when he 
is halted he keeps rolling and heaving about like a 
ship at anchor in a breeze. When you change from 
your pad elephant to the one with a howdah, he is 
run alongside, and as the two roll together you step 
on board just as from a tender to a ship. When the 
elephant is moving about the jungle, as you stand 
in your howdah you feel just as if you were standing 
on the bridge of a steamer. At first it is difficult 
to keep your balance, but having got your " sea- 
legs," you feel it when you get on terra firma again 
at the end of the day. The ground seems to be 
heaving and rocking and you walk as if filled with 
new wine. 

Elephants are very clever at getting over bad 
ground. They push their way through impenetrable- 
looking thorn jungle. In places where young trees 








THE GENIUS OF THE ELEPHANT IN OVERCOMING DIFFICULTIES 



THE GENIUS OF THE ELEPHANT 249 

are growing close together they just shove their 
foreheads against them or twist them with their 
trunks and send them crashing down with a snap 
like a pistol-shot in order to make a path for them- 
selves. 

When they come to a deep nullah they gently 
slide down into it with their forelegs, kneeling with 
their hind legs until sure of their balance. In 
climbing out they reverse the process, kneeling with 
their forelegs and helping themselves with their 
trunk, and it often feels to the man in the howdah 
that the whole show is going over backwards. They 
use their trunk as a fifth leg, especially in boggy 
ground. When an elephant gets bogged, a pole is 
thrown down before him and he walks out on it as 
if on a tight-rope. 

Once when we were pigsticking one of our men 
fell with his horse in the very thick, high tiger-grass. 
On recovering himself he could not find his spear. 
An elephant was brought up and was told to search 
for the missing weapon, and, after fumbling about 
with his trunk in the jungle of grass, he presently 
lifted out the bamboo and handed it up to his 
mahout. But the head of the spear had broken off 
and was missing. Again he was told to search and 
for a long time he searched without effect, but at last 
to our surprise up came his trunk with the missing 
spear-head. I do not know how the mahout conveyed 
to the beast the idea of what he wanted him to 
find, for neither he nor the elephant could see the 
article ; he could only feel for it. 

Clever and astute as they are, elephants are at the 
same time strangely timid. I remember once, when 
strolling down a road in the neighbourhood of 



250 THE ELEPHANT'S A GENTLEMAN 
Lucknow with my little fox terrier, we met a very 
highly-bedecked rajah riding on a huge elephant 
covered with gold trappings and coloured cloths. 
He was coming along with great majesty, the native 
wearing a highly supercilious air as he looked down 
on the white man. But he reckoned without the 
little dog. The moment Jack saw this huge monster 
approaching me, he ran out barking and snarling at 
it. The elephant stopped in his tracks, shied 
violently, nearly upsetting the whole paraphernalia, 
then, whisking round with incredible quickness, he 
scuttled off at a great pace down the road, kicking 
up a mighty dust, absolutely regardless of all the 
kicking and hitting and swearing on the part of his 
mahout. 

Elephants are not entirely respecters of persons, 
nor are they always on their best behaviour. 
Occasionally they go " mast," that is half -mad, for a 
day or two, and then there is no holding them. The 
worst of it is that the fit often comes on quite 
suddenly. The Duchess of Connaught had an un- 
pleasant experience of this in India. Her Royal 
Highness, with Lady Baker Russell, was mounted on 
an elephant to look on at some pigsticking, and all 
was going very well when their mount suddenly took 
it into his head that he had had enough of that fun 
and was going to look for something more exciting on 
his own account. An elephant has a large head, and 
when he gets a notion into it it takes a deal of banging 
to knock it out again. His mahout tried that course 
with the iron hook which the driver uses for pulling 
up his animal. But on this occasion it had no effect, 
and the elephant began to shamble off in a new 
direction. In response to the outcry of the mahout 



A MURDERER 251 

another elephant was quickly rushed in pursuit and 
he was fortunately ranged up alongside of the run- 
away before he got up speed, and thus the ladies 
were safely transhipped from one to the other. 

It was not a pleasant experience, because, although 
a ride on a runaway elephant on an open plain 
might be an exciting if not an alarming adventure, it 
meant every probability of a catastrophe in a wooded 
country where he might run among trees. And 
that was the case here. Luckily the ladies got off 
with nothing worse than a few minutes' excitement. 
The elephant went on and was absent without leave 
for several hours before he was recaptured and 
brought back. 

An elephant will never go on to dangerous ground 
without first very carefully testing it. Thus if you 
try to ride him over a small bridge, he will stop and 
tap it very carefully with his trunk to see that it is 
sound enough to bear his weight, and even then he 
will put one foot very carefully forward to test it 
before he will allow his full weight to go on to it. 
Similarly in crossing a river he is most careful not to 
get into a quicksand. 

When my regiment were on the march near Delhi 
and were fording a river, it happened that one of the 
baggage elephants felt himself sinking in the mud. 
Seized with panic, he made a grab at the nearest 
coolie, who was wading near him, and with his trunk 
shoved him down under his feet. As quick as 
lightning he grasped another and yet another and 
jammed them down in order to give himself a more 
secure foothold. He killed the coolies and saved 
himself. But, as is the case when an elephant 
disgraces himself, he was tried by a sort of jury of 



252 THE ELEPHANT'S A GENTLEMAN 
mahouts and they condemned him to wear a heavy 
chain bracelet round each of his fore-legs for the 
rest of his natural life, a hundred years or so. 

I once saw an elephant flogged. We were resting 
in the midday heat in camp, and this elephant was 
standing lazily munching some sugar-cane while his 
mahout lay on the ground alongside him asleep. 
For some reason the elephant did not like this man 
and, seeing his chance, he suddenly pounded his 
great foot down on to him, meaning to crush him. 
Fortunately for the man he was lying a few inches 
beyond the reach of the elephant's foot, so, instead of 
catching him fully, it merely tore the flesh off one 
thigh. There was immediately a hullabaloo in camp, 
and the elephant was seized and marched off between 
two other elephants and tied up to a tree some 
distance from the rest. Then the other nineteen 
elephants were formed in a long string, and each one 
was armed with a short length of chain which he 
carried in his trunk ; they then marched past the 
culprit, and each one, as he went by, slung his trunk 
round and gave the victim a tremendous wallop 
with the piece of chain. Some of them seemed to do 
it with a peculiar kind of vicious pleasure which 
made him squirm. 

Elephants are used for dragging the heavy siege 
guns while on the march along the road, but, as I 
have said, they cannot be trusted in action as, owing 
to their timid disposition, they are quite apt to turn 
tail and bolt with the guns just at the time they 
would be wanted to advance. 

There is something stupendous about a fight 
between elephants. It is not a thing that any 
human being has been privileged to see in the jungle, 



DUTCH COURAGE 253 

but it is a very usual form of entertainment offered 
by rajahs for the amusement of their guests on great 
occasions. Picture to yourself a deep courtyard among 
the outlying walls of a native palace. The tops of the 
walls all round are lined with a crowd of onlookers 
in the brightest of garments, which gleam in the 
sunlight in brilliant contrast to the sombre shadows 
of the blank walls and of the empty arena below 
them. This last is simply an earth-floored court- 
yard with a small mound at one end. The mound 
is a kind of pedestal, just large enough for an 
elephant to take his stand upon it. It is the 
"sanctuary." The animals seem to understand 
that when one of them takes refuge there he is no 
longer to be attacked ; he has given in and has 
acknowledged himself defeated. 

Many elephants require to be dosed with raw 
arrak (rum) shortly before they are brought into the 
arena, in order to develop a sufficient fighting spirit 
for the encounter. The amount of the nip has to be 
nicely adjusted according to the temperament of the 
subject, just as is the case with the human being. 
I knew a No. 1 at polo who played a dashing game 
if he had a glass and a half of port inside him ; one 
glass was too little to rouse him, two glasses made 
him sleepy. So it is with the elephant— sub- 
stituting the word " bottle " for " glass." 

Presently the great doors are opened and a dirty 
grey monster comes shambling in, napping his ears 
and moving in an undecided, leisurely way across the 
court, stopping every now and then to look around 
in an irritated sort of way to see if there is no way 
out of the place. Meanwhile a second combatant 
has come shuffling into the "ring," looking for trouble 



254 THE ELEPHANT'S A GENTLEMAN 

and seeing insult in the .other's presence. Wagging 
and nodding their heavy heads, both of them come 
towards each other at a shambling run till they collide 
in the middle of the ring, forehead against forehead 
with a mighty thud. 

For a minute or so they push and heave, each 
trying to shove the other backwards, their respective 
trunks feeling around all the time to get a grip on 
the other's neck or foreleg. Then they draw back 
a pace and hurl themselves forward again in a dull 
and heavy shock amid the cloud of dust which now 
surrounds them. They both have great tusks 
which have been cut off at a length of about two feet 
and ferruled with ornamental metal-work. This is 
to prevent their goring each other. However, in 
the crash of the collision a great chunk of ivory flies 
off one of the tusks, and in a few moments it is 
evident that the elephant who has suffered the loss 
recognises its benefit to him. He has now a sharp, 
jagged end to his tusk, and he proceeds to do all he 
can to take advantage of it, and, beating down with 
his trunk any attempt to " clinch " on the part of 
the other, he directs all his energies to stabbing him 
in the eye with this new weapon of offence. 

His opponent quickly appreciates the danger and 
tucks his head down and round and does all he can 
to grip the aggressor in order to save himself. In a 
few minutes dark little streaks glisten wetly in the 
sun as they run down his face, his head is gashed and 
bleeding from the assault : but he presently gets a 
firm hold on the opponent's neck with his trunk, and, 
lowering himself on to his knees, by sheer weight he 
forcibly drags the other down also. The fight then 
becomes a wrestling match between the two monsters, 



LEVIATHANS AT WAR 255 

locked tightly in each other's trunks, on their front 
knees, pushing and heaving with their enormously 
powerful hindquarters, each endeavouring to twist 
the other off his balance. The swaying and jerking 
and pushing goes on interminably. One wonders 
how many tons of energy are being used between 
them. 

For ten minutes the mighty straining goes on 
between the titans, now on their feet and now on 




The elephant fight. 



their knees, till gradually their efforts slacken. They 
break away for a minute with lowered heads ; 
"sharp-tusk" again lunges forward, and "blunt- 
tusk," turning his head to avoid more gashing, 
receives the charge rather sideways and gets swung 
partly round. His attacker is quick to see this and 
presses home on his ribs in a final attempt to push 
him over. The other gives ground, staggering, but 
just saves himself from falling ; but he feels that he 
has had enough, for the spirit, in both senses of the 
word, is dying down. He shambles off towards the 
sanctuary and clambers wearily on to it, while the 
other stands stupidly watching him. 



256 THE ELEPHANT'S A GENTLEMAN 

The fight over, the gates are opened and a crowd 
of men armed with flaming torches on poles and with 
long spears come in and drive both elephants close 
against the wall of the arena. From the top of the 
wall the two mahouts step lightly down on to the 
backs of their respective animals. The moment 
they have got astride their elephants' necks all 
possibility of trouble is over, their mounts are at 
once amenable to reason and shuffle demurely off to 
their stables. 

It is difficult to say what the elephant thinks of 
the whole thing. His face and eye give very little 
indication of what is going on in that great brain of 
his, but one cannot help feeling that after all an 
indignity has been put upon him and that the whole 
show, though interesting to watch, is a cruel one. 
Especially if one can imagine what enormous 
headaches the combatants must have the next day ! 




CHAPTER XV 

NATIVE HOSPITALITY AND TRADITIONS 

The Interest of the Native — Animal Fights — A Game 
Country — A Puzzled Sportsman — An Up-to-date Rajah 
— Impressing the Shopkeeper — The Indian Nautch 
Dance — A Dreary Performance — Thomas Atkins, Lin- 
guist — An Interrupted Picnic — The Lord of the Land 
Objects— His Sportsmanship — A Shooting Competition 
— Alexander the Great — The Tradition Concerning 
His Invasion — His Dying Requests — Swordsmanship — 
The Native During Manoeuvres — Too Eager — The 
Ghoorka's Anger — Unofficial Weapons — An Antiquated 
Transport — The Sporting Beluchis — Regimental Feuds 
— An Unexpected Cavalry Charge — Clever Jackal- 
Calling — Pirates — Native Servants — The Detection ©f 
Crime 

TO me an interesting item in India was the 
study of the natives themselves, and their 
variety is unlimited. To begin with, there 
were the native gentlemen and rajahs, and some of 
these were charming fellows. There are a large 
number of states in India ruled by their own native 
rajahs or princes under the British suzerainty, and 
in most of these an up-to-date method has been 
adopted with all the modern improvements for educa- 
tion, sanitation, manufactures, arts and sciences, 
in place of the former tyranny and extortion which 
used to prevail so generally. On the whole the natives 
in these states appear to be better behaved than 
those which are more directly under our government. 
There are many people who would be glad to see the 

257 s 



258 NATIVE HOSPITALITY AND TRADITIONS 

whole of India ruled by native princes in the same 
manner, for it is believed that in this way there could 
be no cause for discontent or unrest. 

Bhurtpore, not far from Muttra, where we were 
stationed, was one of these native ruled states, and 
the rajah, with typical hospitality, gave the officers 
of the regiment a standing invitation to come to 
Deeg or Bhurtpore whenever they felt inclined 
for pigsticking, and he placed house, servants, and 
food at their disposal on these occasions. On one 
occasion the Duke and Duchess of Connaught paid 
a visit to Deeg, and were there entertained by the 
rajah to what a native considers the highest form 
of sport, and that is fights between different kinds 
of animals, beginning with quails, and going on to 
partridges, fighting-cocks, rams, black buck, buffalo, 
horses, and elephants. The rajah also had a strong 
brigade of cavalry of his own which he drilled and 
commanded himself, spending much of his time daily 
in doing the detail work of stable and regimental 
management. 

The pigsticking in that neighbourhood was of the 
best, because it was a difficult country, very wild 
and full of pig, and those pig of a particularly fighting 
species, so that we never had a blank day and never 
a day without considerable excitement. There was 
also a large lake at Bhurtpore with a bund or cause- 
way running across the centre of it. This lake was 
covered with wild fowl, and the shooting was extra- 
ordinarily good when the rajah caused both ends of 
the lake to be beaten simultaneously by elephants 
wading about among the rushes and reeds : duck, 
teal, and snipe flying to and fro from end to end 
without going away elsewhere. The guns stationed 



AN UNEXPECTED BAG 259 

on the bund in this way got plenty of sport. The 
key to success in duck-shooting there was to have 
linen covers for your gun barrels to prevent the 
sun from shining on them, which has the effect of 
frightening the duck away from the gun. They 
do not mind the man, but they object to the flash. 
I remember one sportsman who, having omitted 
this precaution, could not understand why no duck 
came near him though they kept streaming over 
guns not far away. The birds were so persistent 
in avoiding him that he gave it up as a bad job and 
simply lay on his back and fired into the air just for 
the sake of something to do. Once when he was 
doing this an unfortunate bunch of duck happened 
to fly over him, and three of them got it in the neck. 
No one was more surprised than the firer, and the 
unexpectedness of the bag went a long way to 
compensate him for the first part of the shoot. 

Another rajah with whom we stayed was the 
Maharajah of Patiala, an important Sikh state 
whose loyal adherence to the British Government 
in 1857 was a most important factor in rendering 
possible the siege and capture of Delhi. The 
maharajah lives in a large modern bungalow-house, 
surrounded by some beautiful flower gardens laid 
out very much in European fashion. There was a 
touch of the native about it also, for some of the 
flower beds had patterns made of broken bits of 
black and white glass, or the remnants of whiskey 
and mineral water bottles. He has in his grounds a 
club with dining-room, billiard-room, baths, smoking- 
room and bedrooms, entirely designed for the 
entertainment of his European guests. Then there 
are extensive stables and kennels, a stud-farm on 



260 NATIVE HOSPITALITY AND TRADITIONS 
modern lines, and a cricket ground with pavilion. 
The whole place, gardens and buildings, is lit with 
electric light. The establishment is run by an 
English secretary and a professional trainer and 
cricketer. 

The maharajah and his officers are all nice, 




The officers who met us. 



cheery, gentlemanly Sikhs, and they received us with 
friendly hospitality. Most of them spoke English 
well and were generally dressed in English riding 
clothes, except for the head-dress, all of them 
wearing the characteristic Sikh turban of twisted 
linen in delicate tints of pink, primrose, pale lilac, 
etc. These officers, although they did not take meals 
with us, joined our table towards the end of our own 
meal in a friendly way, but to eat or drink with us 



GORGEOUS APPAREL 261 

would have been against their religion. In the 
evening they dressed in military uniform, very much 
the same as the British mess dress, but again with 
turbans on their heads. One of them, an old Colonel 
of Artillery, was from his good-nature and general 
popularity an object of continual chaff with the rest. 



rw 




Our host the Maharajah. 



He turned up after dinner in full native costume 
of a gorgeous kind, instead of being dressed in uni- 
form like the others. Consequently they all tackled 
him and searched beneath his gorgeous apparel 
to see whether he was not really dressed in uniform 
underneath. 

For entertainment they gave us an excellent day's 
pigsticking, lending us horses and spears for the 



262 NATIVE HOSPITALITY AND TRADITIONS 

purpose. My horse, I think, was the very best I 
have ever ridden for pig, and the maharajah after- 
wards presented me with the spear I had used, with 
the addition of a silver band to it recording the 
results of the day. He himself came out with us 
but did not carry a spear, because he said it would 
not be fair for him to run when he knew every inch 
of the country so well, but he carried in his hand 
an iron-bound club with which to protect himself 
should a boar turn upon him. 




A good sportsman. 

The fat old Colonel, whom they nicknamed the 
Hathi, or elephant, was as good a sportsman as 
any, in spite of his weight and years, and Preetab 
Singh, one of the maharajah's generals, was also a 
splendid rider to pig. He had a narrow escape of 
a bad fall in one of the runs, for in galloping through 
some long grass in a field he suddenly came on an 
open well, but his active little horse was quick enough 
to see it, and to leap the obstacle successfully in 
his stride. In the day and a half hunting we had 
there we got twenty-one boars, all good big ones. 
One particularly fine fellow measured thirty-six and 



A WEARYING DANCE 263 

a half inches high, six feet one inch long, five feet in 
girth, fourteen inches fore-arm, and weighed three 
hundred and eight pounds. 

In the evening after dinner we were invited into 
the rajah's palace and he received us in his audience 
chamber, a great empty room, hung with hundreds 
of glass chandeliers, whose total value is said to be 
one hundred thousand pounds. There were also 
any number of clocks, but none of them going. The 
walls were decorated with German oleographs in 
gold frames, and pictures from Christmas numbers 
of the illustrated papers. In one room were the 
contents, many of them in packages still unopened, 
of an English hardware shop which had been bought 
up by a previous maharajah when on a visit to 
England. He had done it by way of impressing the 
shopkeeper with his rank and dignity. 

At the far end of the room a sort of low stage was 
curtained off and dimly lit with native lanterns, and 
heavily scented with musk, which the natives dearly 
love. When we were all seated, the English visitors 
in the front row, with His Highness and the native 
military and civil officers behind, the lights were 
switched off and the curtain drawn aside for the 
nautch, or native ballet, to take place on the stage. 
A native lady appeared, very fully dressed in yellow 
muslins and heavily ornamented with silver bangles 
on the wrist and ankles. She was young and, as 
far as one could see through the paint, rather pretty, 
and contrived to throw some grace into what is 
otherwise a very ungraceful and inartistic perform- 
ance. It can scarcely be called a dance according 
to Western ideas, for it is just a series of fantastic 
jerks and wriggles and movements with the arms 



264 NATIVE HOSPITALITY AND TRADITIONS 

and hands, the body being poised and pirouetting 
on the balls of both feet, which scarcely leave the 
ground, but stump the floor and make the little bells 
on them jingle. The movements are extremely 
slow and the only thing that kept us awake at all 
was the chorus of native ladies of maturer age and 
inferior beauty who yowled a dismal measure at the 
back of the stage, to the accompaniment of native 
drums, tom-toms, and flageolets, 

Many of the native princes and their officers speak 
English, and conversation with them presents no 
difficulty even to the youngest subaltern ; but 
with the ordinary native the officer finds himself 
up against the wall of a foreign tongue. With 
the British soldier, however, it is something of 
a tradition that language shall be no bar to his 
intercourse with other races, and it is astonishing 
to observe the ease with which he makes himself 
understood. I have seen men who had passed 
stiff examinations in classical Hindustani fail to 
awaken in the eyes of a native that look which 
shows understanding. Suddenly a private or 
N.C.O. who did not know a. dozen words of the 
language would take the matter in hand and 
instantaneously the face of the native would be 
wreathed in the smiles that betokened a thorough 
understanding. It is the peculiar gift of the British 
soldier that he can readily make himself understood 
by natives in whatever part of the world he may be 
serving. In the South Seas, China, Malay States, 
etc., " Pidgin English " has become the universal 
international language. It is even the official 
language in the late German colonies of Melanesia.* 

* I believe that in France our men have now established a form of 
language by which they get on well with their French and Belgian allies. 



THOMAS ATKINS, LINGUIST 265 
Soldiers have a similar sort of jargon or some way 
of expressing themselves which makes their mean- 
ing understood where highly taught linguists fail. 
Two remarks I heard in one day, when we were 
breaking camp to leave Maiwand, fixed themselves 
in my memory. Steevens, our mess waiter, seeing a 
native in charge of three transport mules overloading 
one of them with some of the baggage, expostulated 
with him, saying : " Here, Johnnie, you aren't going 
to put the whole b — y sub (all) on ek (one) , are you ? " 
Grayland, a man in my troop, originally a gypsy, 
I believe, was going about the camp ground that same 
evening saying to the native camp followers : " Have 
any of you blokes seen my chota (little) 'ubble- 
bubble (British nickname for a native narghili-pipe) 
anywhere about ? " How the natives, who knew no 
English, could understand him seems incomprehen- 
sible, but they did. 

One of the secrets of our successful rule in India 
has been a careful observation of the rights of the 
native, individual as well as collective. Though it 
used to be otherwise, even the youngest among the 
British officers are as scrupulous in this direction 
as the most important of the big- wigs. On the other 
hand the native can be as good a sportsman as any- 
one, and none proved this to my mind more con- 
clusively than a grey-headed old Afghan who shortly 
after the Afghan War proved that the spirit of the 
hardy mountaineers was in no way diminished by 
the defeats they had suffered. 

A few miles from Quetta we discovered among the 
hills a charming little valley where there were some 
small villages and a number of vineyards and 
orchards. Some of us made our way out there one 



266 NATIVE HOSPITALITY AND TRADITIONS 

Sunday for a picnic. After settling ourselves 
comfortably in a charming orchard by a running 
stream, we were unpacking our lunch, when a number 
of men of the village came out to us headed by an old 
white-bearded Afghan. He quietly and calmly told 
us to '" Be off out of that," as it was his property and 
no man had any business there. This was rather a 
rebuff for us, who thought we had conquered the 
country after the two years of fighting of the Afghan 
War, and we were not at all disposed to go at his 
bidding, and we told him so. He was not greatly 
abashed, however, and said that although we might 
have conquered the country collectively, we had not 
done so with him individually. This suggested an 
idea which we then propounded to him, and it was 
that one of us should fight with him, or with one of 
his men, and the winner should have the sole right 
of using the place for that day. To our surprise 
he at once acquiesced and offered himself to wrestle 
any one of our number who was willing to oppose 
him. Accordingly our biggest man stepped for- 
ward and accepted the challenge. They had a 
great tussle, but our man was not in it. The old 
grey-beard had him over and down in half a minute, 
and repeated his victory in the second try almost 
as quickly. So, obedient to our pact, we proceeded 
to gather up our things preparatory to moving off ; 
but then, the old Afghan showed himself to be a 
gentleman, for having proved that he was the pos- 
sessor of the place, he now gave us leave to remain 
there for the day, and a very happy day it was. 
Acting on the advertisement which was then in vogue 
on the London omnibuses telling of the place whereat 
to spend a happy day, we called the valley Rosherville. 



A SHOOTING MATCH 267 

In the course of the afternoon the villagers chal- 
lenged us to a shooting match, and they brought 
out their long jezails. These are guns about six 
feet long, with highly ornamented stocks and a pair 
of hinged prongs on the fore-end of the gun, which 
act as a support to it while the firer squats behind 
to fire. Their target was a small round hole cut 
in the face of the cliff, in which a stone was placed. 
Their aim was to knock this stone out of the hole 
with their bullets, and this they succeeded in doing 
pretty often up to a range of about a hundred and 
fifty yards, and we with our Martinis or sporting 
rifles had to shoot as straight as we could to equal 
them. In the course of the day we changed weapons, 
but neither of us could get on very well with the 
strange guns of the other. 

With the Afghan's gun the difficulty lay in its 
being a matchlock — the gun only went off some time 
after you had pulled the trigger — which was trying 
to the nerves and to steadiness. Still, our opponents 
were very pleased with us when we showed that we 
could shoot fairly well ; but their admiration was 
greatly increased when we took to shooting at rocks 
far away up on the mountain side, which were alto- 
gether beyond the reach of their own guns. We 
found them good fellows, and we parted the best of 
friends at the end of the day. 

These hillmen, however, are seldom to be trusted, 
and it was not so very long after our visit that an 
officer in the garrison whilst going to this place was 
murdered by the villagers. 

While at Narkanda I used to sit in the small 
market square of the village and hear the elders 
telling stories to the rest. One evening they 



268 NATIVE HOSPITALITY AND TRADITIONS 

questioned me about the Russians, who were just then 
threatening the countries beyond the Himalayas. 
They had evidently heard that they made slaves of 
the people and were apt to flog them, and they were 
hoping that this would never be their fate. Then 
one of them told me how by tradition they knew that 
the Russians had endeavoured to invade India 
through some passes to the north of their village, 
and he pointed out on the opposite mountain side 
the spot where the Russians had endeavoured to 
come through, but had been driven back by the 
villagers getting on to the cliffs above them and 
hurling huge boulders down upon them. The old 
boy said with some glee that if they tried it again the 
present generation of villagers would serve them the 
same way. He said that eventually these same 
Russians had taken another route and had finally 
come down through the Swat Valley and had traversed 
the Punjab as far as the Beas River. I then realised 
that the Russians of whom they were speaking 
were in reality Alexander the Great and his force. 
There are many traditions and stories of Alex- 
ander still circulating among the natives. One 
which is quoted by Mr. Haughton in The Folklore 
of Kashmir purports to give the account of Alex- 
ander's death. He was devoted to his mother, and 
when he was dying he made some peculiar requests 
to his people. One was that when dead he should be 
carried through the Treasury, naked, with both his 
arms stretched out. Secondly that his mother was 
to give a feast to those who had not lost a son or a 
parent ; and thirdly that she was to report to him 
on the seventh day at his tomb the names of those 
who came to the feast. These duties were faithfully 



THE WISDOM OF ALEXANDER 269 

carried out, and then it was seen what was the 
reason for his requests. When carried through the 
Treasury, it was found impossible to get him through 
the door with his arms outstretched, and therefore 
the walls had to be broken away on either side to 
give sufficient room. This enabled a large crowd 
of onlookers to see into the Treasury, and they 
realised from this exhibition that though a man 
might collect all the treasures of the world during 
his lifetime, he went out of life as bare and empty- 
handed as he originally came into it. This was a 
lesson to them not to bother about getting riches. 
His mother on inquiring for those who had not lost 
relatives to come to the feast very soon found that 
none such existed and that therefore she was not 
alone in her grief at losing a son ; and she had to 
confess in praying to his tomb that her sorrow was 
the same as that of others. 

Our native cavalry in India are, as all the world 
knows, soldiers by birth and upbringing, and splendid 
horsemen and swordsmen. One point among others 
in which they differ from our regular cavalry is that 
they are allowed to keep their swords always sharp ; 
thus they are accustomed to having a dangerous 
weapon in their hand, and they know how to handle 
it with safety to themselves and their mount ; and 
they have learnt the art, which is not altogether 
an easy one, of keeping it always as keen as a razor. 
They have, in fact, a saying that a really disgraceful 
thing is "as disgraceful as having a blunt sword." 
The moment they are off parade the sword is taken 
out of its scabbard and carefully wrapped in oiled 
muslin, and hung up so that nothing shall dull its 
edge. 



270 NATIVE HOSPITALITY AND TRADITIONS 

On the weekly holiday most native cavalry regi- 
ments practise mounted sports, at which tent-pegging 
and using the sword form the principal competitions. 
It was from them that we learnt the sport of tent- 
pegging, which has become so universally popular 
throughout the mounted branches of the service. 
They are also particularly good with their swords, 
especially at cutting sheep in half, which needs 
considerable skill rather than strength for success- 
ful work. They have a large number of cuts in 
their exercises which are quite unknown in the 
British sword exercises. One of these is a particularly 
dangerous one, since the swordsman only delivers 
it after he has passed his adversary, dropping a sharp 
and heavy cut straight down on to the shoulder of his 
opponent with fatal effect. It was as a safeguard 
against this particular cut that our cavalry in India 
took to wearing shoulder-scales made of steel rings. 
In my regiment we added this cut to our repertoire, 
using as a dummy opponent a figure made of soft 
potter's clay. 

Swordsmanship is very popular amongst the 
natives and to an extent possibly unsuspected by 
the Europeans in India. In Meerut alone there 
were three schools of swordsmanship in the native 
city, and through the kindness of our superintendent 
of police who had spent his life amongst them, and 
therefore knew of these things, we were able to get 
some of their most skilled exponents of the art to 
come and give a demonstration in our barracks. It 
was quite an eye-opener to all of us to note the 
various kinds of feints, cuts, and guards of which 
these men were masters. Often and again our men 
almost boo'd certain hits as being unfair, but when 



INDIAN CAVALRY 271 

we explained to them that this is what they would 
meet with if we ever had to fight such men in earnest 
they realised that the sword exercises as laid down 
for the British soldier were merely a set of general 
principles which would not necessarily meet every 
kind of attack to which he might be exposed. The 
story is well known and typical where the cavalry 
soldier returning from the charge at Balaclava 
explained how he had got wounded. He said : 
" When I met the Rooshian I gave him cut two, 
and instead of guarding with three, he cut one at 
me, and of course he wounded me, the silly fool ! " 

There was one favourite cut with the natives in 
which your opponent seemed to take a slog at your 
ankle and by a dexterous turn of the wrist he drew 
his sword through the opposite side of your neck, 
which would have puzzled a man who was only accus- 
tomed to offering certain guards to certain known 
cuts. 

Another peculiar weapon in the hands of our 
native troops is the steel ring with a sharp edge to 
it which the Sikhs wear round the outside of their 
puggaree. This they are able to throw with great 
force and great accuracy to a considerable distance, 
with its edge leading. At their sports they use as 
a target a plantain stuck upright in the ground. 
This the quoit cuts clean in half. 

I have said that the native cavalry are brought 
up to their life from childhood, and one realises the 
truth of this in marching through the country in 
which they are recruited. As one passes through 
or goes into camp near any village the old men come 
out to welcome the regiment and to present a short 
address to the Colonel. There will be very few among 



272 NATIVE HOSPITALITY AND TRADITIONS 

the old grey-beards who have not medals on their 
breasts showing that they have fought for the Empire. 
The younger men are generally troopers on leave, 
or lads who are going to become troopers. They 
all take charge of the horses of the regiment and 
proceed to groom and feed them. The small boys 
come and fraternise with the men, hoping for 
the greatest treat of all, and that is to be allowed 
to ride one of the horses to the watering-place and 
back. The heads of the village usually have a small 
tent or shamiana rigged up where they receive the 
officers, present their address, and offer sweetmeats 
and refreshment. One cannot but be struck by the 
loyal good feeling and comradeship which possesses 
these servants of the King. 

The native soldier is particularly interesting dur- 
ing manoeuvres. Although as a true Oriental he 
generally disguises his real feelings, whatever they 
may be, under a mask, he here forgets in the excite- 
ment of the moment that it is a game of make- 
believe, and shows some of the fighting spirit that all 
the while underlies his somewhat subservient appear- 
ance. During the Attock manoeuvres the Afridi 
company of each native battalion was let loose in 
the mountains to act as an enemy against us, pur- 
suing their own natural tactics for mountain fighting. 
They adopted their own national dress, and once 
they were up in the hills they behaved exactly as if 
on active service against an invader. On one 
occasion I went up with them to see how they carried 
out their tactics, and it was a most interesting 
experience. At one time it even became exciting, 
for after popping away with their rifles and blank 
cartridge on columns of regular troops in the valley 



REALISTIC MANCEUVRES 273 

below, they began to get more bloodthirsty as they 
saw their fire made no impression on the enemy. 
The troops began slowly but surely to climb the 
heights which they were holding. Behind them were 
some of their native tom-tom drummers, and these 
began drumming louder and louder and more furi- 




ously, yelling their war songs and gradually exciting 
the whole of the firing line, till, forgetting that it was 
not real war, and that they were not free Afridis, 
they began to lever up great boulders and to roll 
them down the mountain-side on the advancing 
troops. This was practical manoeuvre with a venge- 
ance ! As the Ghoorkas came pressing on up the slopes 
against them, one great hook-nosed giant near me, 

T 



274 NATIVE HOSPITALITY AND TRADITIONS 
with his eyes gleaming and his teeth glistening in a 
grin of rage, hurled a great rock down at the advanc- 
ing riflemen. It bounded from point to point, and 
finally glanced off the head of a little Ghoorka, 
cutting open his scalp. The Ghoorka's action was 
typical of his kind. Up till then he had been cheer- 




A Ghoorka out for blood. 



fully panting up the mountain-side, kneeling to fire 
when told, and advancing with the rest in good 
order. Now this was all over. He stood for a 
moment and looked up with the blood running down 
his forehead, and with a grin of anger on his face ; and 
while both hands were searching at his belt he seemed 
to say : " That lets you out, you swine ! " Then hav- 
ing found his kookri — the great curved knife — he 
put it between his teeth and proceeded to scramble 
up the rocks with such a speed as brought him very 



A FREE FIGHT 275 

quickly to the crest. There was a rush of Afridis 
together to meet him, all throwing down their rifles 
and drawing their knives. In another few moments 
there would have been mincemeat, but one Afridi 
native officer fortunately kept his head. Thrusting 




The excitement of manoeuvres. 



his own men back he ordered the Ghoorka, as an 
officer, to halt, about face, and retire. Then he 
seized a huge rock himself and hurled it at his own 
drummer, who still was tom-tomming and shrieking 
war-cries at the top of his voice. In that way he 
silenced him and closed the incident. 
At some manoeuvres near Aligarh we found a 



276 NATIVE HOSPITALITY AND TRADITIONS 

group of buildings being held by some native infantry. 
A few squadrons of native cavalry were dismounted 
to attack them on foot. Getting excited, these 
charged close up to the walls, and here, instead of 
having a few harmless blank cartridges fired over 
their heads " to mark the situation," as an umpire 
would say, they were received with a volley of stones 
to mark it more seriously. To this they promptly 
responded, " playing the like." It is when one 
has seen how easily men lose their tempers even in a 
game of war that one can realise how the lust of blood 
can seize even the most peaceful and unemotional 
when " the real thing " is on. I remember some 
harmless manoeuvres in which my regiment was sup- 
posed to make an attack against a body of High- 
landers; the Highlanders for some reason or other 
did not like these supposed attacks, and instead of 
taking it kneeling, as they are expected to do accord- 
ing to the rules, one or two of them fixed then- 
bay onets, contrary to all orders for manoeuvres, 
and rushed out to meet the charge with a counter- 
charge on their own account. The moment they 
did this, the same enthusiasm seized their comrades, 
who rushed forward in a great wave of angry, cheer- 
ing men. The 13th seemed at once to catch the 
infection, and instead of pulling up as they should 
do at a hundred yards' distance, they at once began 
to draw their swords and press forward to make a 
real charge of it. It was only the strongest inter- 
vention of the officers, coupled with a flow of the 
warmest language, that stopped them in the nick of 
time. 

H One of those regimental feuds which begin on 
such small premises was very nearly initiated in this 



A CAVALRY CHARGE 277 

same fight between a distinguished infantry regiment 
and my own, because one of our scouts was captured 
by two of the mounted infantry. The tempers of 
both sides were up, our man violently refused to be 
a prisoner, and as he tried to make off the infantry 
man had a shot at him with blank cartridge, but at 
such close range that his face was peppered with 
grains of powder driven into the flesh. The hussar 
was taken to hospital, and it was only due to the 
tact and kind attention paid to him by the officers 
of the other regiment that ill-feeling was diverted 
and no feud resulted. 

Charges between bodies of cavalry often come 
nearer the real thing than is intended owing to the 
dense clouds of dust in which they often have to 
operate, and I remember that in attacking a native 
cavalry regiment on one occasion, as we advanced 
with all our dust blowing before us, the enemy had 
thought better to decline our onset and were wheeling 
away when we suddenly came on the top of them in 
the midst of our charge. Instead of pulling up the 
men forgot that we were in play, and, seeing their 
opportunity, as they thought, they put on an extra 
spurt and crashed into the wheeling squadron, 
rolling numbers of them over through catching them 
in flank. It was all over in a second or two, our 
men were jumping off their horses and picking up 
those whom they had overthrown. Fortunately 
none were killed, though a good many were con- 
siderably knocked about. But there was no denying 
the exaltation of the moment, the taste of war 
though it was peace. 

Talking of tom-toms, it is a strange thing what an 
effect the sound of the drum has on a man of almost 



278 NATIVE HOSPITALITY AND TRADITIONS 
any nationality under the sun. He must be a queer 
creature whose heart is not stirred when he hears 
the drums in the streets of a peaceful town in 
England. I know I myself have been stirred by a 
band of Boy Scouts with no better instruments than 
a dozen kerosene tins drummed in perfect time and 
harmony. 

In India one knows the weird effect of the throb- 
bing sound of the native drums beating in the distant 
bazaar. Among the Arabs the thrumming of their 
drums in camp and the shrieking of their flageolets 
give a weird music which stirs these otherwise per- 
fectly stolid characters to the depths. And on the 
West Coast of Africa great hollowed-out tree-trunks 
are used for giving out booming sounds which can be 
heard through forest and bush, and carry their 
meaning far and wide for war or peace, for warning 
or welcome. 

When in such manoeuvres we depend for transport 
principally upon the lumbering two-wheeled bullock- 
cart of the country. It is almost prehistoric in 
design, as will be seen from the accompanying 
sketch, but it is wonderfully well-balanced and 
capable of carrying a huge load. It is also extremely 
picturesque, although this quality has nothing to 
do with its persistent use for military purposes. 

Although a good, sometimes a splendid, soldier, 
the native has occasionally little weaknesses that are 
embarrassing to his officers. The 15th Bengal 
Lancers is a regiment of Moltani Beluchis, grand, 
wild-looking chaps, with long hair and great baggy 
yellow breeches stuffed into their boots. There is 
also a joke against them to the effect that, although 
as a rule perfectly steady on parade, the march, 




k 



THE NATIVE OFFICER 279 

etc., if any game crosses their path it is too great 
a temptation to their sporting instincts to be with- 
stood, and they are liable to break the ranks and 
tear away in pursuit. 

Most native cavalry regiments have ten white and 
seventeen native officers ; ressaldars are captains 
of troops, and jemadars lieutenants. The men pay 
for their own horses, arms, and saddlery by deposit- 
ing two hundred and fifty rupees in the Regimental 



W£v. 




A regiment of inveterate sportsmen. 

Fund on joining. Very few of the native officers 
receive direct commissions, most of them obtaining 
them after serving in the ranks. They have their 
own tents and servants, but no mess. When they 
go out shooting and the like they wear the plain 
clothes of the native. 

The natives have taken up with great spirit very 
many English games and pastimes, and the Parsee 
cricketers are of course well known in England. 
Polo-playing and pigsticking are as much the games 
of the natives as they are of the British. Many of 



280 NATIVE HOSPITALITY AND TRADITIONS 
them are good shots at big game. The Ranah of 
Dholpur was a wonderful shot with the rifle ; to hit 
coins thrown up in the air was an easy feat with 
him, and a favourite pastime of his was to stand 
under a tree and shoot bottles which had been 
thrown over it from behind him. Even his wife the 










V.' 'A^Al.- 



Native officers in plain clothes. 



Rani came out of the seclusion of the women's 
apartments to become an expert rifle-shot herself. 

Among the humbler class it is everywhere a common 
sight to see natives of all kinds and all builds playing 
at football. 

At the great Church Mission school in Kashmir, 
where there are six hundred pupils, the boys have 
taken up most kinds of British sport, including that 



JACKAL CALLING 281 

of boxing, and as they have also taken up the prac- 
tice of the Boy Scouts' training we now frequently 
hear of their doing " good turns " in helping the poor 
and saving life, and in doing service for the state. 

There is interesting life below the surface, much 
of which is unknown to Europeans. I remember 







J<W 




Native football. 

once, when on manoeuvres near Delhi, seeing some 
remarkable jackal-calling by " Jogis," a wandering 
tribe of wild-looking gypsies. After hiding them- 
selves, their well-trained dogs and us in the high 
grass, one of them went out into an open patch 
of ground and, shaking a bunch of leaves, he 
imitated the cries of two jackals righting. It was 
so like the real thing that in a few minutes a jackal 
came dashing up to join in the fray. The moment 



282 NATIVE HOSPITALITY AND TRADITIONS 
he appeared the man was flat on his face, throwing 
up dust to hide himself. The jackal rushed into the 
dust and, before he had fully realised the situation, 
the dogs had been loosed on him from their hiding 
places all round. A jackal is far too crafty ever 
to be caught by traps. 

The Jogis are also fond of carrying out a more 
dangerous form of sport, namely, that of crocodile 
hunting. They build for themselves small rafts 
largely composed of bundles of reeds and branches 
of bushes. In these crazy craft, armed only with 
a big heavy harpoon and axes, they sally forth on 
water haunted by crocodiles, and when they come 
across one basking either on the mud bank or on 
the surface of the water they let their craft drift 
silently within striking distance, and then let him 
have it. The results are sometimes a triumph for 
the hunters, sometimes for the croc, but in any case 
one thing is certain, the experience is always exciting. 

Another interesting people among these nomad 
tribes are the cattle-thieves, who do their business 
in many parts of Bengal. Their chief opportunity 
is when the rivers are in full flood. They then round 
up a whole herd of cattle at a time and drive it 
straight into the river and swim across out of reach 
of pursuit. Often in the larger rivers where many 
islands exist they will be too cunning to swim to the 
opposite bank, since in these days of telephone and 
telegraph the police of one district hearing of a cattle 
raid can report to those across the water almost 
before the thieves can set foot on the opposite shore, 
but with islands to help them the raiders can spend 
days and weeks swimming from island to island, often 
during the night, until they are out of reach of 



RIVER PIRATES 283 

pursuit. This involves great daring, endurance, and 
swimming power on their part, but still the adven- 
turous life appeals to them, and even the smallest 
boys take part in the raids and ride on the backs 
of the cattle when swimming the rivers. 

Another interesting class of law-breakers on the 
great rivers of India have until quite recently been 
the pirates of the Jumna and Ganges, and their work 
had been so adroitly carried out that it had gone on 
for years under the eyes of the authorities without 
being suspected, and it has only been within the 
last five years that the police have exposed and put 
a stop to their practices. The reports of Mr. 
Bramley, the Sherlock Holmes of the Indian Police, 
on this subject are of intense interest and read like 
a romance. The large majority of the licensed boats, 
of which there are an immense number on these 
big rivers, was contracted for and worked by the 
gang, which had a very widespread organisation. 
For years the ferry boat would carry out its work 
effectively, and then, at some great fair or festival 
perhaps, being overcrowded for the occasion, the boat 
would sink or capsize and all hands would be drowned. 
That is what was supposed. But it eventually 
transpired that the boatmen on these occasions 
always managed to save themselves. 

As a matter of fact they had blown-out goatskins 
ready as life-buoys to support themselves and all the 
jewellery and money which they had collected from 
the passengers before they pulled out the plugs and 
allowed the boat to sink in mid-river. 

Native servants in India are often supposed to 
be most awful rogues and vagabonds, and so they 
are unless you get good ones ; but when they are 



284 NATIVE HOSPITALITY AND TRADITIONS 
good they are excellent. You can trust them with 
all your money and trinkets and, although they may 
rob others on your behalf, they are entirely honest 
towards their own masters. They are patient and 
clever at their work. Your kitmutgar, with three 
bricks as his kitchen range and a bit of cow- dung for 
fuel, will cook you a dinner in camp just as good as 
you would get in a well-ordered kitchen at home. 
Your syce will run for miles to take charge of your 
horse at the end of a ride, and prefers to sleep in 
its stall to living in a separate house. Your bearer's 
good qualities shine when you are sick and he proves 
himself a capable and attentive nurse. 

Once I remember a theft taking place amongst 
my household, and in calling it " household " I 
do so with reason because one was obliged to have 
at least a dozen men about the place, since the 
sweeper (mehter) would never dream of bringing 
in water for your bath, nor would your bearer or 
kitmutgar. Your syce will look after his own horse 
with devotion, but will not bring its grass, which has 
to be done by another man, a grasscutter, and so on. 
The natural trades union of caste in India is far more 
strict in its slavery than its more artificial imitation 
in Western countries. 

I had lost three hundred rupees, which had 
been stowed in a bag in a cupboard in my room. 
None of the servants knew anything about it when 
asked, but it was obvious that no stranger could 
have come in without their knowledge, so instead 
of sending for the police I called in the assist- 
ance of one who is far more dreaded by the 
natives — that is, the soothsayer. His powers of 
detection are supposed to be those of one who is 



A SOOTHSAYER'S METHODS 285 

gifted with second sight. His usual modus operandi 
is to make all the suspects sit in a circle, and he gives 
to each a small handful of rice to chew. At a given 
signal each man spits out his mouthful and it is 
examined by the soothsayer. He immediately 
points out the guilty one. It is said that when a 
man is in a state of complete funk his saliva glands 
strike work, and consequently the man whose con- 
science is not quite clear yields dry rice on such 
occasion and is therefore easily identified. 

In my case, however, the soothsayer said that as 
a first step he would have a prayer-meeting of the 
servants in one of their houses to implore the deity 
to explain what had become of the money, and if he 
could not tell them the soothsayer himself would 
apply the ordeal which could not fail to show up the 
delinquent. The prayermeeting, however, decided 
the case. The soothsayer presently came to me and 
said that their God had made it manifest that I 
was bringing a false charge. The servants were all 
loyal to me ; the money had never been stolen but 
was there in the house. It was probable that some 
mischievous djinn, or devil, had come in the night 
and had transferred my money from the cupboard 
into my gun case, where I should now find it. And I 
did. Of course the soothsayer went away the richer 
by a double fee — one from me and the other from 
the grateful servants, with whom he had connived. 

The faithfulness of native servants to their white 
masters was put to the highest test and proved 
in hundreds of cases during the Mutiny, when, at 
the risk of their own lives, they hid away white women 
and children from men of their own creed and colour. 
The Mutiny, it may be remembered, broke out in a 



286 NATIVE HOSPITALITY AND TRADITIONS 

certain native cavalry regiment stationed in Meerut, 
and an interesting point to us in the 13th was that 
Sir Baker Russell at that time joined the service 
in the Carbineers, who were the British regiment 
in the same station. The Carbineers had only 
just arrived in India from England when the out- 
break occurred, and were naturally very much at 
sea, with ofhcers who knew nothing of the country 
and men who were nearly all new recruits and armed 
with blunt swords. It is scarcely to be wondered 
at that they were unable to do much to prevent the 
well-equipped native squadrons from escaping to 
Delhi after having murdered their British officers. 
One moral of this to me was that British regiments 
in India ought to keep their swords sharp ready for 
active service, or as an insurance against the repeti- 
tion of any such outbreak, and when I commanded 
a regiment I took care to have this done. I only 
then realised that with the plant available it 
took nearly three weeks to get the weapons of the 
whole regiment made effective. I had no sooner 
got the work completed than a peremptory order 
came from headquarters directing me to have them 
blunted again, as the sharpening of the blades would 
reduce the natural life of a sword, which in the 
estimates was expected to last some twenty-five or 
fifty years ! I blunted some, but as I kept one of 
my four squadrons always ready for instant service, 
one hundred and twenty swords were always keen 
and ready for work. 

One of the causes of the Mutiny as exploited by 
the ring-leaders was that the cartridges of powder 
which were used by the men in loading their muskets 
were wrapped in paper which had been greased with 



CHUPATTIES 287 

the fat of cows. These animals are of course con- 
sidered sacred in India. The fact that the men had 
to bite off the end of the cartridges before loading 
was shewn to mean that the British were secretly 
intending to break the caste of the native soldiers 
by making them eat some of the sacred animal, 
and that this would send them all to Gehenna. 

The Brahman's dislike for even touching leather 
is so great that in putting on his shoes he will always 
catch hold of them with a piece of cloth, such as the 
end of his puggree or the tail of his shirt. 

At the same time that the outbreak began in 
Meerut a small chupattie, or cake, was handed 
about in every village through Northern India. 
No one knew the meaning of it, but took it as a 
portent or sign that they were all called upon to be 
interested in some great event. When they heard 
of the Mutiny they naturally inferred that this must 
be the event, and many were led on that account to 
take part in it. These portents have gone through 
the country on other occasions but without result. 
I remember when the muddy imprint of a human 
hand was to be seen on every blank wall, but nobody, 
not even the native detectives, knew what it meant. 
The signal was supposed to come from somewhere in 
Northern India to the village chowkedar, or parish con- 
stable. He merely knew that it was his duty on receiv- 
ing such a sign to pass it on to the chowkedars of the 
three neighbouring villages. Published in this way it 
spread with the greatest rapidity through the country. 

Reverting to the faithfulness of servants. On my 
return to India, after twelve years' absence, my 
former bearer came on board and took charge of my 
things without a word of warning on either side. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE CALL OF KASHMIR 

A Strange Disease and Its Cure — Roughing It in 
Luxury — My Outfit — My Views on the Tonga — The 
Blasted Way — Crazy Bridges — Princedoms' Double — 
The Great Unwashed — My Fleet Weighs Anchor — Spear- 
ing Fish — Srinagar — Something about Kashmir — Kash- 
apa and the Devil — Itinerant Tradesmen — A Clever 
Dealer — I Fall — The Ruins at Pandritan — A People 
Without a Conscience — The Boatwomen — An Inter- 
rupted Sermon — The Ubiquitous Tourist — My Entour- 
age — Essential Qualities in a Wife — How the Day 
Begins — Jack's Way With Natives — A Chance of Bears 

THERE are times in every man's life when his 
whole being cries out for a steady spell of 
doing nothing in particular, at least nothing 
that matters. Nowhere is this so acutely felt as in 
India. A feeling of staleness comes over you, and 
instinctively you look round for an antidote. If 
the call of the wild then makes itself heard the 
right thing is to yield to it and obey, for to many 
that is the one effective antidote for staleness. It 
is to me. I had been thinking a good deal of 
Kashmir in the summer of 1898, and, curiously 
enough, soon afterwards I was prostrated by an 
attack of this strange disease. I decided to take a 
trip to Kashmir, to loaf in the lowlands, with the 
object of getting a month's complete laziness and 
change of climate — and I got it. 

To enjoy laziness one must be comfortable, and to 

288 



LUXURIOUS CAMPING 289 

be comfortable much attention must be devoted to 
the details of camp-equipment. People talk of 
"roughing it " in camp ; roughing it does not exist 
for any but the ignorant. The experienced camper 
knows what to take and he also knows that the 
necessaries are sometimes luxuries. On this particu- 
lar trip I took with me the following : 

Shikar clothes. 

A suit of civilised do. and evening suit, etc. 

3 pr. shooting boots (i pr. grass soles), i pr. chaplis. 
Tent for self, and 1 for servants. 

Bedding. 

Mosquito curtain, and mosquito head net. 

Old kid gloves for mosquitoes. 

Eau de luce, ditto : Keating : Izal (most useful). 

L.M. carbine and cartridges. 

12 bore gun „ ,, 

Field glasses. 

Kodak. 

Medicine case, including castor oil, quinine, etc., for natives. 

4 cases of stores, including 12 tins soup, Bologna sausage, tea, 
cocoa, butter, milk, biscuits, 12 pots jam, lard, 7 lb. flour, sugar, 
7lb. dog biscuit, candles, soap (bar), matches, 1 brandy, 4 whiskey, 
baking powder. 

4 waterproof sheets, cloak, cover coat, umbrella. 

Ulster. 

Folding bath. 

,, table. 

,, chair. 
Fishing rod and fishing spear. 
Filter. 
Padlocks. 

Candle lanterns, and bull's-eye lantern, candlesticks with globes. 
Cooking pots. 

Crockery and cutlery and table cloths and tin opener, corkscrew, 
hammer and chisel. 

Books : Hindustani grammar : English history. 
Fuzees. 
Axe and hoe combined (can be got in Srinagar). 

I discovered when it was too late that I ought 
to have taken medicines for villagers, especially 

u 



2go THE CALL OF KASHMIR 

ointment for sores, pills, quinine and spongeopiline. 
An artist's umbrella would have proved a great boon, 
and straps inside coat so as to hang it on shoulders 
would have added to my personal comfort. 

I left Murree on August i in the mail tonga to 
drive to Kashmir, 160 miles distant. The only 
other passenger was a native gentlemen, a Custom's 
officer in Kashmir, and a very decent fellow. He sat 
with his servant on the back seat. The tonga is a 
two-wheeled shandrydan drawn by two ponies, one 
in the shafts, the other hitched on outside, like the 
horses in Hungary. The ponies are changed every 
six miles, and are almost always either jibbers or 
kickers or are lame. Our graven-image of a driver, 
an old hillman with a beard dyed bright red, drove 
them with the greatest coolness, treating each 
according to his temperament. But the dirty little 
tongas and the starved, dangerous, suffering ponies 
are a disgrace to a civilised Government, or rather 
to a civilised public, because it is we travellers 
who ought to insist on things being better done. 
The tongas and the road to Mussoorie are a disgrace, 
the railway to Naini Tal is equally bad : all far 
worse than in the wildest hinterland in South Africa. 
In India, if things possess any movement at all, they 
seem to go backward ; but the way of the country is 
to let things slide and to leave it to our successors to 
improve matters. 

However, minor discomforts are soon forgotten in 
such scenery. Once on the banks of the Jhelum the 
road never leaves the river, which for the first forty 
or fifty miles runs in a deep valley between steep, 
bushgrown or partly-cultivated heights. It is about 
one hundred yards wide, and a continuous succession 



ROAD-MAKING 291 

of rapids. Gradually the valley narrows into a 
gorge, the heights become mountains, and the river 
a torrent between cliffs. The waters were full of float- 
ing logs, beams and tree-trunks, all being sent down 
to the plains. At one point, where there was a big 
eddy circling them round, we saw men swimming on 
mussuks — sheepskins filled with air — fishing out some 
of the logs. Exciting work in these rapids and not 
a little dangerous. 

The road is cut out of the side of the heights 
running along the river. After the long descent 
from Murree it is level and good enough for biking ; 
in fact, but for the warmth of the valley in the 
middle of the day, biking would be the most enjoy- 
able way of doing this part of the trip. The road 
must be a very expensive one to keep up, as in 
almost every mile of it one came across land- 
slips and washouts resulting from the recent rain. 
At one place, where it crossed a side-gully, the 
bridge had been swept away. A gang of coolies 
was at work making a temporary road. A great 
rock still blocked the way, and we got the men to 
blow it up with a charge of blasting powder, and a 
lot of them took our tonga, the ponies having been 
taken out, and hauled it over the bad part. I gave 
the men a rupee, and two small boys, who helped by 
shouting at the men, got a halfpenny each ! They 
were really keen on the job, not eye-serving at all. 

We stopped for the night at Garbi dak bungalow, 
having driven 102 miles since 2 a.m. These dak 
bungalows, which are dotted about every twelve or 
fifteen miles, are very nice, clean, and prettily- 
situated little houses, with a cook and supplies ready. 

At Garbi the river is crossed by a native rope 



292 THE CALL OF KASHMIR 

bridge. You have to walk a tight rope with a rope 
along each side as a handrail. The whole thing 
sways about under you over the rushing torrent, and 
not only do many tourists find themselves unable to 
cross such a crazy structure, but some of the natives 
even will not venture. The dodge is to go very slowly 





,r~- 




Kashmir carriers. 



and keep your eye on one point in front. There are 
two or three of these bridges along this part of the 
Jhelum, in addition to others of a different variety. 
One for instance is a single rope from which, supported 
by a hooked stick, hangs a loop. You put your leg 
through the loop and sitting thus haul yourself 
across hand over hand. 

Another at Uri is simply a rope ladder without a 
handrail, stretched horizontally across the stream. It 
assists the operation of Nature by killing at least one 



A PRINCE'S DOUBLE 293 

traveller per annum. Guide books of routes in 
Kashmir state at the head of the list of marches : 
" There are bridges on this route." At first glance 
you would imagine this to mean that the bridged 
route would be the one to take, but as a matter of 
fact it means just the opposite ; so many tourists 
have not heads able to face the bridges and prefer 
to take roads where there are no bridges. 

Early the next morning we continued our drive 
for the remaining sixty miles to Baramoola, the 
scenery getting wilder and more beautiful as we went. 
Magnificent mountains and deodar-wooded slopes, 
ragged cliffs and boiling torrents, then peaceful 
valley scenery ; farms and crops among the hills 
and the river broad and calm for the last six or eight 
miles. 

The people one meets vary very much in appear- 
ance and dress ; perhaps the Jewish face and 
voluminous white clothes predominate among the 
men ; but there are some like quick, neat French or 
Italians. Occasionally you will encounter a great 
swaggering giant with heavy black brows and beard, 
who looks as if he would much rather cut your throat 
than not. I met one tall, handsome fellow whose 
face I knew. I felt an impulse to call him " Sir." 
Then 1 remembered that it was the double of Prince 
Louis of Battenberg that was before me. The 
women are very delicate and refined looking. Many 
wear their mouths open like consumptives. Some 
have their hair cocked up under their head-kerchief 
and look like the native Jewesses of Tunis. One 
little girl I saw had a most becoming cap and rough 
hair. Others wear their hair plaited in a number 
of braids and pigtails. But they are all alike in one 



294 THE CALL OF KASHMIR 

respect, they are filthily dirty. The children are less 
dirty than their elders because they have not been 
so long on the earth to get soiled. They are such 
cheery, confiding, taking little creatures. 

At Baramoola one enters the Vale of Kashmir, 
an open plain thirty miles across, through which the 
Jhelum flows. It is surrounded on all sides by 




The Kashmir girl does her hair in plaits, to which continuations of plaited 
wool are added. 

mountains. Srinagar, the capital, is fifty miles up 
the Jhelum from Baramoola. 

Baramoola is a small town situated where the 
Jhelum widens into a broad, slow river running from 
the open plateau of the Valley of Kashmir. It is a 
grand place for earthquakes, and is accustomed to 
being destroyed by them. I had heard somewhere 
that the last quake had caused landslips which had 
exposed a lot of ground like the diamondiferous blue 




MY TENT, LOOKING FROM THE BREAKFAST TABLE TOWARDS 
THE LIDDAR. JAMES GOING TO GET MORE STEWED PEACHES 




MY DOONGA 



A LOST OPPORTUNITY 295 

clay of Kimberley. 1 looked everywhere for it, but 
without success, and thus perhaps lost the chance of 
a lifetime. Its architecture consists of rather ordin- 
ary wooden houses ; but its smells are an outstanding 







Baramoola. 

feature, by no means ordinary. The timber bridge, 
which here crosses the Jhelum, is quaint in itself 
and rather reminded me of the Galata Bridge at 
Constantinople, as an interesting place to sit and 
watch the curious variety of wayfarers. 

At Baramoola I found my doonga, a boat rather 



2g6 THE CALL OF KASHMIR 

like a large punt, all ready under Ahmed, the boatman. 
James, my kitmutgar (cook), who had gone on a week 
ahead, was there with my dog Jack and the stores. 
My boatmen, unlike others, had not their families 
on board, which was a great blessing ; otherwise 
there would have been continual jabbering and 
squalling. As it was, whenever they wanted to 
smoke and talk, they went out to the kitchen doonga 
and sat with the other servants, and so I had a 
perfectly quiet time. They proved very clean after 
all. In fact, dining as I did at my neat little table 




My doonga. 

in absolute quiet, the running river in reach of my 
hand, mountains, trees, and the bright moonlight, I 
seemed to have struck my ideal of a " good time." 

My bearer having turned up, I ordered my fleet 
to get under way for Srinagar. As the gong at the 
police guardroom was striking five I heard the flap 
of our bow warp, a bit of thin cord, as it was cast-off 
and flung on the deck. Then we slid away without a 
sound, two men towing with a string from the bank. 

The Jhelum River is about 200 yards wide, with 
green grassy banks, and runs through flat, cultivated 
country. Farms, villages, cattle, orchards on every 
hand, and woodland trees such as walnut, plane, 
and poplar all help to improve the landscape, and 
beyond all, on every side stand the mountains backed 
up and overtopped by the higher snow peaks. A 




•; *• 



X 






FORT HARI PARBAT SRINAGAR 



V 




>. 



DAIS VILLAGE 



FISH-SPEARING 297 

warm sun and a cool air. What more could one want ? 

About midday the river emerged into the Woolar 
Lake, a fine lake fifteen miles wide, but dangerous on 
account of sudden squalls and a sea sufficient to 
swamp a doonga. Consequently boats usually cross 
a small corner of it and go by the Naroo " Canal," a 
stream through swamps and water overgrown with 
the water-nut plant. On this floating plant one 
sees a bird that might be a cross between a magpie 
and a pheasant with a touch of the dove thrown in. 

I got Ahmed to make me a native fishing spear, and 
when punting through the shallows I managed to get 
several small fish, weighing nearly a pound each, but 
very bony. Very many years ago, when I was 
mudlarking in Portsmouth Harbour, I learned the 
value of killing fish by spearing them. Grey mullet 
are very good eating, but very shy and difficult to 
catch with hook and line. Occasionally they could 
be got with fine tackle and a bit of dough, and 
sometimes with a small white fly. But in Ports- 
mouth Harbour by mooring our boat alongside the 
old man-of-war hulks we could always get them with 
a spear as they fed along the bottoms of the old 
ships, and by frequent practice we became adepts at 
the sport. 

This stood me in good stead when I got to Kash- 
mir, for here I found that the natives did much the 
same thing. Standing on the prow of your punt, 
with a long, light spear in hand, while your native 
boatman poled you gently along, you would peer 
down into the water until you saw a fish, and then 
with a gentle, well-aimed shove you could secure 
your prey. Meeting an ardent fisherman near my 
camp one day I challenged him to a match, he fishing 



298 THE CALL OF KASHMIR 

with his rod and line, I with my spear. In the result 

he got more fish, but I got the greater weight. 

The mosquitoes on these swamps are marvellous 
for number, size, and voracity, coupled with audacity. 
I wore gloves, veil, and two pairs of socks, and the 
crew lit a fire of smoky stuff. So I got along with 




Spearing fish. 

comparatively few bites, though the crew themselves 
were in a continuous state of slap, scratch, and 
swear. The noise of the mosquitoes at sundown was 
like that in a railway station where several trains are 
ready to start with steam up. 
feThe scenery generally is like that of North Italy, 
while the river itself continually reminded me of the 
Thames. The splendid massive Chinar (plane) trees 



MIXED MOORING DISCOURAGED 299 
looked just like elms in the distance, and they 
improved on nearer acquaintance because of their 
pretty foliage of serrated leaves. 

Long before reaching Srinagar we could see Hari 
Parbat, its citadel, but there is no sign of the city 
itself until you are in it. Then it is a little dis- 
appointing. The river runs for two miles straight 
through the middle of it. There are dilapidated 
wooden houses, the roofs covered with earth and 
consequently grass-grown, and windows with carved 
lattice work, which would be picturesque but that 
they are invariably pasted over with newspaper on 
the outside to keep out the draught. The waterside 
walls and steps are crowded with boats and barges, 
carrying an enormous river-borne population. All 
the children apparently live in a state of bathing. 
Beyond the city for a mile and a half the river runs 
through the English part of Srinagar, with poplars 
and chinar trees in abundance. English villas on 
the towpath, house-boats and doongas all along the 
banks, make it look exactly like Teddington, 
provided you keep your eye off the background of 
mountains. 

Before reaching this part of the river we turned 
off into a side canal which brought us to the Chinar 
Bagh (grove of plane trees) which was the camping 
ground assigned to bachelors. At Srinagar, I should 
explain, there were two camping-grounds, one for 
the married and one for the others. Mixed mooring 
was discouraged. Being a bachelor I had perforce 
to go to Chinar Bagh, where I found the whole bank 
lined with doongas of others whose tents were 
pitched on shore under the splendid trees. The 
Kashmiris take life cheerily. All the evening from 



300 THE CALL OF KASHMIR 

five until half -past nine, bedtime, there passed by us 

a continuous string of boats full of people homeward 

bound from an outing on the Dal Lake, most of them 

singing, some of the songs having a rather pleasant 

refrain. 

From Takt-i-Suleiman (Solomon's seat), a hill of 
about 800 feet, overlooking the city and valley of 



cs£*&. 





Kashmir children. 

Kashmir, with an old Buddhist temple on the top, is 
to be seen a splendid panorama of plains resembling 
those of North Italy, backed up all round by 
mountains. The city of Srinagar looks very pic- 
turesque with its steeples of many temples, and 
river flowing through the centre. The Dal Lake, 
composed chiefly of swamp, with its pleasure gardens 
and islands, is where Noor Mahal had her love 
scenes, quarrel and reconciliation with the Emperor 
Jahangir. It also contains the market gardens of 



THE EUROPEAN QUARTER 301 
Srinagar, species of rafts made of rushes and water 
weeds, just like the floating gardens in China, where- 
on excellent vegetables, tomatoes, etc., are grown. 

The Jhelum flows round the south of Takt-i- 
Suleiman in a curiously winding series of curves, 
from which it is said the pattern of Kashmir shawls 
was originally derived. 

The European quarter is at the foot of Takt-i- 
Suleiman, and consists of about fifteen or twenty 
houses, English villas in nice gardens, but too shut 
in with trees for my liking. The Srinagar people 
have gone mad on poplar avenues, and they run 
in every direction. Every boundary is a line of 
poplars, planted about two feet apart, and reach- 
ing a height of from sixty to eighty feet. Going 
among the houses one finds beautiful green turf 
everywhere, English flowers in the gardens, and 
the trees in the orchards laden with peaches, apples, 
pears, and plums. In our garden a splendid chinar 
tree overshadowed a family breakfast table, on which 
a white-haired old lady was arranging flowers. 
People from the boats on the river were living in 
tents everywhere. There were two churches, a 
subscription library, a polo ground, golf links and 
kennels with a pack of hounds ! All handy to the 
Residency, where Colonel Sir Adalbert Talbot, the 
British Resident, lived. 

Why a Resident ? Well, here is the history of 
Kashmir somewhat condensed : 

The vale of Kashmir was originally a lake in 
which the Devil (named Zaludban) lived. Kashapa, 
grandson of Brahma, visited the country and, finding 
the Devil there, sat down for a thousand years~m 
devotion and got the gods to help him turn out 



302 THE CALL OF KASHMIR 

Zaludban, which he did by draining off the lake 
through the gorge at Baramoola. So the country 
was called Kashap's Mir (country). It was first a 
Hindu country, then Rajputs ruled for 633 years 
up to 3121 B.C. It is an oldish country : the 
Kashmiris still sing of the loves of King Bambro 
and Lolare, who lived about 2000 B.C. Asoka 
conquered the country in 1394 B.C. and introduced 
Buddhism. Srinagar was founded about A.D. 500. 
The country became Mohammedan in the 14th 
century (1323 A.D.) and Hindus were forced to 
change their religion, so that to this day their 
descendants still respect Hindus. The Emperor 
Akbar conquered Kashmir in 1587, and so it was 
under the Moguls till 1752, when the Pathans seized 
it. In 1819 the Sikhs obtained possession. After 
the battle of Sobraon the British agreed, for a 
consideration, to recognise the independence of 
Kashmir under British suzerainty. The amount of 
the consideration was 750,000 Rs. A Resident is 
appointed to see that the maharajah behaves him- 
self, and to act as adviser in developing the country. 
While camped in the Chinar Bagh I was besieged 
by shoals of jewellers, shawl-dealers, shoe-makers, 
shikaris, etc. But I was busy and bad-tempered. 
On land I posted a man to warn them off, and when 
they turned my flank and came alongside in boats I 
heaved water over them. Eventually I was weak 
enough to parley with one man who had photos of 
the place to sell ; in a moment four or five boats had 
run up, and like vultures the dealers gathered round 
me and had their wares out on the grass to tempt 
me, and beautiful things some of them were too, and 
I had a present or two to make, and — well, I fell ! 



A CLEVER TRADER 303 

The man who dealt with me had strips of cloth 
held up all round us by coolies, so that rival traders 
could not see the amount of our transactions. He 
was a really clever dealer. Having discovered 
beforehand who I was, he began by asking about most 
fellows in the regiment. Then incidentally he got out 
something similar to what he had made for one of 




One way of travelling in Kashmir. 

them, and then he thought perhaps I would like to 
see a half-finished thing he was making for the Duke 
of York. He was going to make another like it but 
smaller for his shop. He would send it to me at 
Meerut to look at and if I liked it I could keep it, if 
not return it, and so on. 

I find the following entry in my diary under the 
date of August 7. " One of the many evenings for 
which one has been truly thankful and glad to be 



304 THE CALL OF KASHMIR 

alive,' ' which shows that I appreciated the beauty 
of my surroundings. As this was written I was 
sitting under the branches of my gigantic tree, my 
fleet — I had just taken on a dinghy which brought 
the number up to three bottoms — moored to the 
bank, my dinner table and bed set out on the 
" velvet " turf on the bank under the same trees. 
The setting sun and the mountains on every side 
had done their best to satisfy my eye and had fully 
succeeded. Similarly James had done his best to 
satisfy my " capacity," and with a mutton chop, 
stewed peaches, and a bottle of local Kashmir claret, 
had also succeeded, more especially as he accom- 
panied them with a clean table-cloth and fixings. 

The next morning we visited the ruins at Pan- 
dritan, the little temple in the yellow tank whose 
trefoil-pointed doors have puzzled the antiquarians 
but are exactly in keeping with my antiquarian 
ideas, whatever they may be worth. By the way, 
the two guide-books I have seen both refer to this 
mystery, but neither notices that one of the four 
doors has a Buddha sculptured in the trefoil. This 
village was originally the capital of Kashmir, but 
was destroyed by order of Abimanyu, another Nero, 
who could burn a city for his own pleasure. There 
is also a gigantic " lingam " idol (broken), and the 
feet of a sitting statue that must have been twenty 
feet high. 

A courteous native met me in the fields and told 
me my boats were not far off. He was a dealer in 
wood-carving, and, having heard I had started, 
followed me out. His boat, full of samples, pres- 
ently came along, tied to mine. His things were 
very taking, and — again I fell. 



•<i 




A NAIVE ADMISSION 305 

The people in this country ought to be very happy, 
and apparently they are, for in every direction I 
heard singing ; even the mosquitoes were singing. 
One reason, possibly, for their being happy is that 
the Kashmiris have no consciences. They admit 
themselves that they are liars and thieves. A native 
proverb says : "If you find a snake don't kill it ; 




A Kashmir spade.^ 

but if you find a Kashmiri it is another matter " ; 
another states that " Many chickens in a house 
befoul it : many Kashmiris in a country spoil it." 

Getting under weigh in the morning was a beauti- 
fully simple operation. The usual routine was that 
I awoke about daybreak, the crew then being at 
their prayers, with one eye on Heaven, the other on 
me. As soon as I rolled out of bed their prayers 
came to an end, my bed was handed into the doonga, 

x 



306 THE CALL OF KASHMIR 

and before I had well started my toilet on board 
the mooring pegs had been pulled up and we were 
under weigh. The kitchen boat presently ranged up 
alongside, and my chota-hazri was brought on board. 
After which Jack and I landed and walked for a 
couple of hours. Then came a tub, clean flannels and 
breakf ast,and subsequently a settling down for the day. 

The boatwomen of Kashmir are famed for their 
beauty. I saw many hundreds of them, but must 
have missed the famed ones. They were handsome 
in a way, strong-featured and strong-bodied and, 
as I have before remarked, very dirty, very like 
gypsies. They were dressed in a dirty night-gown, 
many sizes too large for them, with a white (?) cloth 
thrown over the back of their head. Some wear a 
small, flat red turban under it. They work just the 
same as men in the boats, taking their turn at 
punting, towing, and steering, as do also the children. 

The boatmen are of splendid physique and gener- 
ally nice, respectable, intelligent fellows. My two 
headmen were very capable, they could cook, look 
after my clothes, boots, etc., and the two lads under 
them were very hard-working, cheery fellows, whose 
great delight was to carry my spear when they were 
towing and to look out for unwary fish as they went 
along. 

The verandah of my doonga was a charming place 
on which, to spend a happy day ; I could sit there for 
hours and enjoy watching the view continually 
changing. Jack also liked lying with his head over 
the side, peering down into the water. So little did 
I like the idea of ending this ideal boat-life that I 
gave orders to the crew that they were to go slowly, 
and still further delay the inevitable. 



THE UBIQUITOUS TOURIST 307 

At Bidjbehara, which I found too tempting to be 
resisted and stopped there a whole day, our charming 
bagh was invaded towards evening by the Resident 
of Kashmir and his camp, and 40,000 coolies (more or 
less), escort, tagrag and bobtail. 

Just opposite to where I lay moored was a Hindu 
temple. I had been interested in watching the ways 
of the devotees, and I took my dinghy and rowed 
unobserved close under their bank and listened to 
what they were saying. A priest came to them 
while they were eating their midday meal. He 
talked, not directly to them at first, but rather at 
them, steadily harping on one thing. " Life is 
vanity, the great river flowing by is like the Destiny 
of Life ; it rolls on ceaselessly, unmoved by the 
desires, or prayers, or tears of men ; quiet but 
irresistible ; calm but inscrutable." They seemed 
to forget their meal as his impressive refrain began 
to hold their attention. 

" Aye, brothers/' he continued, " look at those 
straws, those bubbles borne along by the current. 
What are we but such as they ? borne along by 
Father Destiny, the Great River, whence ? it matters 
not : whither ? we know not : what use for us to 
have ambitions, loves or hates ? Can we, mere 
straws, turn the Great River to suit our little aims ? 
Do you, my brothers, not see the might of the great 
God ? Yes, in your heart you begin to comprehend 
his greatness and your own littleness. He comes to 
you — he comes " 

Yes, he does, or the next thing to him does. An 
English tourist, kodak in hand, nose in the air, walks 
in, stepping through the assemblage as if they were 
so much dirt, and proceeds to " snap" their best idol. 



308 THE CALL OF KASHMIR 

The spell was broken. Poor old priest, I quite felt 
for him. All his high-falutin thrown away. The 
disenchantment was complete. The women covered 
up their faces from the white man, and the men 
resumed their eating and began jabbering to each 
other their various experiences of the " mad sahib 
logue " they have met. 

Eventually I reached Kunbul, the port of Islama- 
bad. My general plan now was to leave the fleet 
here as a base for supplies, while 1 made short trips 
into the mountains which closed in on every side, 
and offered most tempting scenery for nearer 
investigation. At Islamabad, a fair-sized town, dirty 
of course but not quite so smelly as most of them, 
there were a number of Hindu pilgrims camping for 
the day on their way back from the cave of Amar- 
nath, among them fakirs or religious mendicants in 
most fantastic guise. At Bawan, at the entrance to 
the Liddar Valley, I fixed my camp in a grove of 
immense chinar trees with a stream of running water 
gurgling through it. On first coming into the bagh 
from the sunlight it seemed quite dark under the 
trees. I say " camped " ; but my breakfast-table 
was spread in the open, and I did not have my tent 
pitched at all. The climate was perfect, hot enough 
in the day to keep you sitting in the shade, cold 
enough at night for a blanket, or two even for those 
who wear two. My bed was placed under a tree to 
keep off the moonlight and the dew, which was very 
heavy. 

My " outfit " now consisted of eleven carriers, at 
four annas (sixpence) per march of about twelve 
miles, and my bearer and kitmutgar. We had to 
take all food with us, and thus I had got a flock 




~ £ 






309 



MY ENTOURAGE 
of chickens, each carrier carrying one in his hand on 
the march ! They are fine, strong fellows, who carry 
huge loads which they pack into a neat little frame- 
work of bent sticks tied up with cord, which they 
make in a few seconds from the bark of the bushes 







My household goods on thejmove. (i) My bedroom. (2) My study and 
library. (3) My kitchen. (4) My bearer. (5) My mansion itself. 

about them. They all wear putties round their legs. 
Their loads were apportioned as follows : 



1 Carried my bedding and clothes. 

2 Carried despatch box, servants' blankets. 

3 Cooking pots, etc., in a basket (kiltee). 



310 THE CALL OF KASHMIR 

4 Stores. 

5 Tent. 

6 Bath and small sundries. 

7 Table, chair-bedstead. 

8 Tiffin basket. 

It was about this time that I came to the conclusion 
that I ought to be married. I felt acutely the need 
of a wife who could sketch landscapes.* There was 
more than enough for one man to attempt in the 
sketching line here, especially when he is no good at 
landscapes or trees. 

The stream that ran through the camping bagh 
at Bawan had rather a curious origin. When 
Kashapa had finished his prayer of 1,000 years long 
he was at Bawan, breakfasting, and happened to 
have an egg in his hand, when he saw the water, in 
which lived the Devil, running out of the Vale of 
Kashmir. In his excitement he shouted: "By 
gum ! we've done the Devil this time ! " or words to 
that effect, and dashed the egg down on the ground. 
It must have been very under-done, for it at once 
developed into a stream of water, which has flowed 
happily ever since. 

The lumbardar (headman) of the village and also 
the guide (self-constituted) to the ruins have very 
interesting visitors' books, handed down to them by 
their fathers : in these are the autographs of John 
Lawrence, Hugh Gough, Neville Chamberlain, Digh- 
ton Probyn, Hardinge, Lieut. Frederick Roberts, 
Lord Lansdowne, and others, dating back to about 
1830. 

■ It is curious how comfortable and simple marching 
becomes when the whole party have got into the 

* I have recently had to revise my standard of the qualities of a 
desirable wife. 



HOW IT IS DONE 311 

routine of it. I would give only one word of com- 
mand, " James," and that does the whole thing. 

When the morning star begins to wane in the 
coming dawn I would wake up and shout : " James." 
Jack, who has watched for this, would immediately 
jump on to my bed, stretch himself and go to sleep 
again. So would I — for about seven minutes. 

Then James hands in a plate of grapes and dis- 
appears. All my servants had, after a painful 
amount of drilling, got into the way of doing what I 
want and nothing more, and then disappearing again, 
instead of their usual system of fiddling about eye- 
serving. While I am at the grapes, and Jack at the 
skins, the bearer would be putting my hot water and 
washing-things ready outside. Then I up and 
dress, by which time the table, which stands on a 
big waterproof sheet as carpet out in the open, is 
laid with cocoa, eggs, and toast. 

During breakfast the tents have been struck and 
packed up and sent off on their road, as well as all 
the other kit. Every carrier knows his own load, 
picks out his things directly they are available, 
packs them up, and off he goes. One man waits to 
take the table, chair, carpet, and tea-things. The 
whole thing is done in about fifteen minutes and 
not a word is spoken. 

My tiffin-basket is really a tea-basket ; it has a 
kettle and a spirit-lamp, which enables me to make 
my own tea. It has quite sufficient storage for what 
food I want. I have added to its equipment an 
aluminium cigar-case which holds toast or biscuits, 
and an old tooth-powder box containing salt and 
pepper mixed. 

My tiffin man also carries a clean shirt and a 



312 THE CALL OF KASHMIR 

change of chaplis and socks, and therein lies my 
secret of walking, viz., a change of footgear. I was 
known at Charterhouse for playing football with two 
pairs of boots, one pair on, the other in waiting ready 
to be changed into at half-time. I always consider 








The natives have eyes in their knees when Jack is about. 



a change of footgear the most important item in a 
long walk. 

The natives have eyes in their knees, at least their 
knees seem the first part of them to get out of Jack's 
way when he runs ahead to clear the road for me. 
On coming to a string of men he prances at the leader 
grinning from ear to ear, but not barking. The 




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NEWS OF BEARS 313 

smile is enough. Their knees run away with them 
to the side of the path and Jack trots on master of 
the road. The only sign of exultation that he gives 
are two single wags of his tail to one side, just a sort 
of wink to me. Then he will trot along in a kind of 
sideways manner, his hind-feet moving on a parallel 
track with his forefeet, one ear inside out, and head 
low. Don't tell me a dog isn't thinking deeply to 
himself when he goes like that ! 

After going about ten miles 1 look out for a place 
to halt in. One that affords (1) shade all day ; 
(2) a stream ; (3) a view. There I bathe, change 
clothes, have tiffin, read, write, and draw till about 
3.30. Then I make tea, after which I pack up and 
move on to where I find the camp pitched and another 
tea ready. Then comes a hot bath, dinner, letters, 
and finally I turn in. 

One day, looking at my map, I thought how good 
it would be to get off the beaten track and see 
something of the mountains about Dedhoof Nag. 
Seeing a native I asked him if he knew a way up 
yonder mountain. "Yes, of course," he replied; 
" did I want to go shooting ? " " No, only to look." 
" Well, that's a pity, because on a mountain behind 
that, at Dedhoof Nag, a lot of horses have just been 
killed by bears." A good name for a place where 
one might expect to find the remains of a horse. 
He was a shikari, disengaged, so I took him on then 
and there and made my plans accordingly. I sent 
back a coolie with a note for our boatmen to send 
up guns, warm clothes, and servants' tent. Mean- 
time we marched on another six miles up the Liddar 
Valley among snow mountains, rugged peaks, deodar- 
forested slopes and roaring river below. We were 



314 THE CALL OF KASHMIR 

already getting up in the world and it was quite 

cold. 

The scenery where the Lunghni Valley joins the 
Liddar is absolutely perfect. We pitched the camp 
there and determined to sit down and look at the 




Samud Khan, my shikari. 

view, or rather views, for in each of the four different 
directions they are splendid, but impossible for me 
to paint. In the afternoon I visited the fields near 
Shutkoti to see where the bears had been at work 
in the crops. 

That night, with my shikari, Samud Khan, I 
went to a field much frequented by two bears and sat 
up watching for them half the night ; but none 



THE WAYS OF THE BEAR 315 
came. It was a beautiful night, and I was interested 
to see the whole hillside ablaze with small bonfires 
intended to keep the bears out of the crops ; one 
man always on duty, going from fire to fire stoking 
them up, shouting all the time. 

Half an hour after we left the bears came and fed 
within ten yards of where we had been sitting ! 




A tonga. 



CHAPTER XVII 

A HUNTER AS PANEL DOCTOR 

The Lunghni Valley — Omar by the Camp Fire — Philo- 
sophic Carriers — The Efficacy of Castor Oil — A Good 
Camping Rule — A Bear at Last — A Mud Slide — 
An Excellent Fellow — A Test of Eyesight — The Man 
with the Funny Face — I Indiscreetly Heal the 
Sick — I Become Famous — A Jungle Doctor — My 
Practice Increases — A Question of Date — How I got the 
News of Omdurman — My Appetite — A New Use for 
Oil Tins — A Courteous Governor — The End^ofXthe 
Trip — The Balance Sheet? 

EVERY turn in the Liddar Valley brought us 
on to something new and more charming 
in the way of scenery. I found a forest 
of deodars one day, covering a great amphitheatre 
of mountain side. There were thousands of them 
ranged there, every tree was like its fellow, 
tall, symmetrical, and grand, quite as awe-inspiring 
in their way as the mountains themselves. Those 
hoary -headed old grandfatherly peaks, looking 
away" in cold sublimity across a waste of ages, 
are far out of touch with us little parasites 
crawling about their feet. But the deodars are a 
little more of this world, they seem like an army 
corps of grenadiers standing ready waiting for 
orders. At a word one could imagine them all on 
the move at once. 

We packed up and started off up the Lunghni 

316 



THE LEGS OF SAMUD KHAN 317 
Valley, at first alongside the splendid rushing tor- 
rent, among beautiful woodland scenery, crossing 
the stream by a fallen tree which Jack crawled across 
in abject terror; then on his own account he went 
back across it and returned. He did this two or 
three times until he could do it quite comfort- 
ably ! We ascended steadily for four thousand feet 
through the forest, the deodars standing strictly 
to " attention " while we passed. Very blowing 
work, the last mile or so, not so much because 
I am fat and pursy, but because of the altitude, 
somewhere between nine thousand and ten thou- 
sand feet. Samud Khan had horrid long legs 
and the stride of a gillie on the moors on the 12th 
of August. I was very glad to find that I could 
get along with him much better than I had expected 
on this my first day's real walking for ever so long. 

We saw lots of pleasing wild flowers by the way. 
Purple anemones, lilac-coloured marguerites, snap- 
dragon, yellow crowsfoot and an inferior pink imita- 
tion of the "Pride of the Table Mountain "—still, 
a handsome flower all the same. None of these 
bore the names I give them, but they looked like 
them in bloom. There were also real forget-me- 
nots, buttercups, clover, bluebells, cornflowers, 
strawberry flowers, everlastings, dwarf-sunflowers, 
etc. 

That wife of mine will have to be able to draw 
sunset effects on the hills and in the forest. They 
are wonderful. I wish I could give you an idea of 
them. 

We continued our march up the Lunghni Valley — 
for scenery the most beautiful walk I have ever had. 
Unfortunately, this year, the mountains that are 



318 A HUNTER AS PANEL DOCTOR 

usually covered with snow were almost clear of it. 
The path was very rough and steep in places. We 
toiled up to ten thousand feet, then promptly dropped 
down again one thousand feet, and then gradually 
made it up again. At one spot a tornado had floored 
hundreds of deodars, and it was hard work clamber- 
ing over their bodies. 




How they frighten birds in Kashmir by means of a cracker made of plaited 
strips of bush ten feet long. 

On arriving at the selected spot I found my tent 
pitched, the tea-table spread, and bath ready (al 
fresco), and, after enjoying these to the full, I sat, 
first sketching and then simply staring at the view, 
to the total disregard of lots of letters which I ought 
to have been writing ; but I did not care. 

That evening at sunset the elements tried to get 
up a thunderstorm. Clouds rolled up all over the 
mountains and turned the sky salmon pink in one 



A COMFORT AND AN ANXIETY 319 
part and the next bit deep, steel blue. Then great 
lumps of white, woolly cloud rolled across with all 
sorts of coloured lights upon them, whilst the thunder 
rumbled behind the scenes. Suddenly the whole 
show cleared away again and let the stars have their 
turn at showing themselves off. 

After a charming little dinner (during which a 
woodcock flew by) I sat me down by a roaring log- 
fire, in my comfortable arm-chair, Jack lying along- 
side, very excited to see the sparks flying. My 
lantern hung from my alpenstock, and by its light 
I read with much enjoyment " Omar Khayyam," 
which I had in the Persian with Whinfield's transla- 
tion to it. My comfortable arm-chair was one of the 
many things given me by friends that go to make 
this trip so completely comfortable. My field-glasses 
were the wonder of everybody, and like Selous' wife 
in Storm and Sunshine in Rhodesia were "at once 
my chief comfort and my chief anxiety." I was so 
afraid of losing them. They were destined, a year 
later, to be of inestimable value to me in the 
South African campaign. Then I got married : 
wedding trip on the Sahara, strap left undone, 
case overturned when riding, glasses gone ! Retrac- 
ing our tracks, lamentations, swear-words all useless. 
Gone ! 

On rainy days we made little progress, as the carriers 
could not do much on the slippery ground. When 
the mist hung over the mountain-tops the rest of 
the ground looked very like a Scottish moorland, 
and the illusion was helped by a dwarf yew growing 
among the boulders, and a crimson wild flower 
exactly like heather all over the place. 

Among the piles of stones live numerous marmots, 



320 A HUNTER AS PANEL DOCTOR 
brown and black animals as big as large cats and 
very shy. Samud Khan and I went after them with 
a gun and got three. They have good fur, but these 
were apparently at that time changing their coats, 
and so were not much good for rug making. 

We were now close to Dedhoof Nag, and found 
that the report of red bears was exaggerated ; one 
only had been there, and it would require several 
days to get on his track. I had no licence for shoot- 




Beaters going home, as their chaplis render them useless on 
slippery country. 



ing red bears, only one for black, and red bears' 
coats were not in good order at that time of year. 
My supplies would not last many days, and the 
difficulties of the road had already delayed us for 
two days beyond our scheduled time. These con- 
siderations determined me to let the red bear go — 
and he went. I decided not to go over Dedhoof Nag, 
but camped on the road turning towards Islamabad 
and supplies over the Liwapatur ridge, and I pro- 
posed to go for black bears on the other side of it. 
During the night there was a heavy downpour 



NATIVE WAYS 321 

of rain, which induced a lot of mountain ponies to 
come two or three times to take refuge under the 
lee of my tent, and among the tent ropes. My poor 
carriers were sleeping out in it all, with nothing but 
their blankets. I knew I could not get them all 
into my tent, and the aroma of even a few of them 
would necessitate my going out into the rain myself. 
So I let things slide till the morning, when I purposed 
giving them a day's pay extra to comfort them. 
But it was very little comfort they required. They 
were all as cheery and talkative as possible, and did 
not mention the rain until I asked them if they had 
not got wet. " Oh yes, a little, but you cannot 
expect always to be dry, and we always get a ducking 
on this old mountain." 

They were much amused at my servants from the 
plains, who cowered in their tent and wrapped up 
their heads when the rain began. When it came 
down in earnest they ran out and busied themselves 
at doing nothing with my tent ropes till their 
wretched linen garments were soaked through, and 
then they huddled up again in their tent and deve- 
loped graveyard coughs for which they eventually 
had to be dosed with castor oil. There is nothing 
like castor oil for anything from a toothache to a 
broken leg. 

The silence on the mountain is remarkable. 
There are no birds, no trees to rustle, and it was too 
high for us to hear the noises from the valley below. 
The steep stony ridge above our camp was one which 
is usually covered with snow ; but the only sign of 
this was one small glacier we passed. On reaching 
the top, it was to find it was a real top. We were 
not to find, as so often happens, still another shoulder 

Y 



322 A HUNTER AS PANEL DOCTOR 
or crest to surmount. Here suddenly before you 
was space, on this occasion all cloud, but here and 
there a rift showing the country beyond, spread 
out like an emerald-green and peacock-blue ocean, 
with its horizon high up in the sky, the most extensive 
view I have ever seen. We were twelve thousand 
feet up. I got badly blown the last few hundred 
yards, my heart thumping the wind out of me till 
I almost felt sick. Then down a very steep descent 




Going up is simple enough, but the real difficulty lies in coming down. 

over a waste of boulders, between grand crags, and 
with occasional glimpses, through holes in the 
clouds, of the country below. 

I had started with English walking brogues, but 
I soon changed into chaplis, which are excellent 
footgear on this stony country. 

After an hour and a half we got down among 
deodar woods again and " pretty " scenery, brawling 
torrents, woodland, grass and ferns, etc., on the 
southern slopes of Liwapatur. 1 breakfasted in 



A SULKY MOUNTAIN 323 

the deodar woods overhanging a mountain stream, 
my menu consisting of grilled chicken, poached 
eggs, and (of course) stewed peaches. 

Whenever possible I sent my baggage and tent 
on to the camping place I had selected, with orders 
not to camp within one mile of any village. Thus 
one avoids smells, bad water, and visits of headmen 
and others with presents of bad fruit, for which they 
expect backshish and a letter to say they have done 
you excellent service. 

Out of the deodars into ordinary woods, we 
descended into a warmer and closer atmosphere. 
Finally the valley opened out a little and the path 
occasionally became level for a few yards. Cows, 
children, millet fields we saw, and grass and wild 
flowers waist-high. Scattered about were trees — 
walnut, mulberry, plum, pear, and apple. There 
were one or two small hamlets, one of which, called 
Hamgalpao, proved to be the home of Samud Khan. 
Here his brothers and nephews met us, all of them 
shikaris, his brother Sabhana a celebrated one just 
back from Ladakh. They showed me to my camp- 
ground, a lovely spot, my tent being situated on a 
grass knoll with trees all round. A mountain stream 
gurgled past within a few yards of it, in which I 
bathed. On the other bank of the stream, which I 
crossed with the aid of a sapling, beneath two shady 
trees close together, I came to my table, chair, des- 
patch box and string hammock (slung) . As I sat I 
could look up to where the mountain hid its silly old 
head in the clouds. " Sulky old beast," I muttered. 
" Why didn't you come out and be looked at ? ' 
The " sulky old beast " came out after all at sunset. 

Early one morning I set out with my shikari and 



324 A HUNTER AS PANEL DOCTOR 
a local native to wait for a bear which the latter 
said came along the path " every morning at day- 
break. Of course he did not come, but we found 
his tracks when it got light, where he had passed 
during the night within one hundred and fifty yards 
of my tent. 

After a cup of cocoa I started up the hill above my 
camp, and after a stiffish pull the shikari posted me 
" where three bears had been killed last year." 
Then forty beaters beat out the jungle all up the 
hillside to where I was posted. Two doves came out ! 

Then came another climb up to a higher point in 
the forest, with the same result, minus the doves. 
After a repetition of it all yet a third time, I began 
to see that there were no bears. It was then noon, 
so I had breakfast, deciding that I had had about 
enough of such exercise for one day, and that we 
would drop gently down again to camp, which was 
about fifteen hundred feet below us. But the 
shikari's brother said : " Now I know where the 
bears are ; just a little higher up. It's a hot day 
and they've gone up to get cool." 

First we went down a precipitous, slippery grass 
slope. Going down, down, down was awful. Then 
we began the re-ascent, which is always so annoy- 
ing, but I was getting my wind now, and my legs 
were — the following sketches show what they had 
become. 

Arrived at the top of a gorge, all in forest, we took 
up our position on a narrow ledge on a high rock 
looking down it, the two shikaris and I. I had 
" melted " so that I wanted to change my shirt, 
for the third time. Not having a dry one left, I 
put my coat on next to my skin and put my shirt 



BEARS 325 

on to dry over that. I then sat tight on top of the 
rock while the beaters clambered up through the 
forest, shouting and whistling with wonderful shrill- 






The making of a calf. 



ness. " Stops " were posted on both sides of the 
gorge, tapping trees with sticks to prevent the 
bears breaking out to either side. 
Suddenly the stops at one side began shouting ; 



326 A HUNTER AS PANEL DOCTOR 
there was a crash of branches and a black lump 
came bundling down the side of the valley through 
the underwood at a great pace, straight towards 
our rock — a rough, shaggy, half-grown bear. 










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" Here, look out, my boy, we are here ! " 
" Yes, I know," was his unuttered reply. " That's 
just what I'm coming for." 

And he made a determined clamber of it and the 
next moment was on the ledge with us ! There 
wasn't room for us all there, so the old shikari who 
was nearest to him let him have one on the top of 



A SEVERE FALL 327 

the head with his alpenstock, followed immediately 
by one better on the side of the head, which knocked 




Act I. 






Act III. Act IV. 

The work of a " stop " in a bear-drive in four acts. 
Act I. : " Have the beaters found him ? " Act II. : " I'll stop him 
coming this way ; " taps hollow tree-stump. Act III. : " Shoo ! get 
along with you." Act IV. : " Will the sahib hit him ? " 

poor bruin sideways into space, and he fell with 
a heavy thud, and a yowl like a dog, into the 



328 A HUNTER AS PANEL DOCTOR 
undergrowth below us. He was too young to 
shoot. 

Very soon afterwards more shouting from the 
" stops," and a big bear could just be seen dodging 
about among the bushes. He got away through 




Unintentional tobogganning. 



them. I sent a couple of snap-shots after him just 
to show that I had noticed him, but did him no 
harm. Then the beaters got nearer and nearer, 
making a hideous din, whistling, shouting, hammer- 
ing hollow trees that gave out a wonderful " boom," 
and one bull-voiced individual kept letting out a 
most blood-curdling cry of " Oola — oola ! " It had 
a grand effect, for suddenly, out of the underwood 



A MUD SLIDE 329 

before us about eighty yards off, dashed a great big 
bear heading towards us. I fired and he rolled 
over with a yell ; but was up again in a second and 
scurrying back towards the beaters. As he was 
climbing out of a watercourse I gave him another 
which toppled him backwards. But he scrambled 
up again and dashed straight at the line of beaters 
so that I could shoot no more and he got away through 
them. Then the fun began. I took off my shirt 
and started with the shikaris to follow him up. 
We got on to his track, blood-spoor, and followed 
it, now up, now down, through heavy brushwood, 
over rocks, along slippery hillsides. It was exercise 
with a vengeance. At one spot the hillside was 
slippery black mud. It gave with me, and down I 
went on my back at forty thousand miles an hour. 
Luckily one shikari was below me and had his alpen- 
stock well into the ground and his knees bent, and 
I brought up against him all standing, or rather 
sitting. But my back ! A moment before a torso 
of alabaster, now it might be called a study of the 
nude carved in bog-oak. 

Well, we had a long hunt, and then after a con- 
sultation the shikaris agreed that my dodge was to 
go down, round the bottom of the mountain, and 
up on to a certain spur, and the beaters would drive 
him out to me. I was so done I could hardly get 
down, and as for getting up the spur again after I 
had toiled down 1 I sat down and looked at it 
hopelessly. Then I tried a step or two up, and I 
got up all right to the appointed place, changed my 
shirt again, but no bear came out. Eventually 
my shikari, who had continued on the spoor, came 
down and said he had followed it away up the 



330 A HUNTER AS PANEL DOCTOR 
mountain to some big caves where it had gone in. They 
had lit fires to smoke it out, but the caves were too deep. 

My old bulleted leg was now too dicky to take me 
a yard except in the direction of camp. I got 
down the hill somehow, and back to my tent, after 
a really grand day's exercise. I reckon we did about 
twenty miles, and most of it climbing. 

I had a regular carnival in the stream, incidentally 
almost breaking my nose on the bottom. I lost 
count of the number of " goes " I had of fried- 
buttered toast spread with honey, cups of tea, 
apples and grapes. I had been out from 4 a.m. 
until 5 p.m. tracking the wayward bear ! 

Next day was a day of rest, though indeed I did 
not feel a bit tired and the game leg was as right as 
ever. The English mail, letters and newspapers, 
arrived the previous night and, not feeling sleepy, 
I sat up half the night reading them. I was in 
that state when one is too tired to sleep. An even- 
ing stroll up the dingle at the back of my camp 
was, bar the distant church bells, exactly like an 
English country Sunday. While I was sketching 
her house a woman came through the field of high 
millet, and had it not been for her face and dirty 
clothes she would have looked rather like the pictures 
of Pharaoh's daughter which one sees on chocolate 
boxes, coal-scuttles, etc. 

My coolies made a pair of shoes out of one long piece 
of cord, which is made of the grass growing round. 
They fitted comfortably (when you got used to the 
string between your toes), and though I could not 
quite walk on the ceiling with them I felt confident 
that I could walk up a plate-glass window all right. 
They were the best shoes I ever had. 



SABHANA'S WIT 331 

Two days later we had another beat for bears. 
We went further and worked along the top of a 
beautiful ridge three thousand feet above the camp. 
There is a note of laconic joy in my diary ; it says : 
" Such views ! A long day, splendid exercise (shirt 
perpetually changed)." The only bear we saw was 




Sabhana, our guide. 



my wounded one and he dived into his cave, from 
which we could not get him out with either stones, 
poles, or fire : nor could we tackle him inside — it 
was a narrow hole between rocks with ramifications 
under the side of the hill. Sabhana proved an excel- 
lent chap, very intelligent and witty. He kept 
the beaters in roars of laughter with his jokes, 
g The next few days were devoted entirely to 



332 A HUNTER AS PANEL DOCTOR 
beating for bears, and to disappointment. Once 
we devoted a whole day to following a burly fellow 
at whom I did not so much as get a shot. He was 
a very big, bobbery chap, who, when pressed, would 
turn and charge the line of beaters. Twice he was 






\ 



1U ! 






¥\%vw^^m his 



ill 




The bear^charges the beaters. 



near me, although invisible in the bush ; but the 
heavy thud of his galloping was just that of a grazing 
carthorse when he suddenly takes it into his head 
to gallop round his meadow. 

One evening in the middle of dinner a native ran 
in from the field across the stream to say that a 



A TEST OF EYESIGHT 333 

bear had just come into his crop. Away went Samud 
Khan and I, I in my evening dress : I always dine 
in evening dress ; some might call it " night-dress." 
We crept all about the fellow's field, but divil a 
bear. Then it came on to rain and we got back well 
wetted. So I changed and began dinner over 
again. 

Nothing in particular happened during the next 
few days. It rained and I enjoyed the seclusion 
of my tent with a jolly big fire at the door. Then 
we had another bear-drive and I admired the clouds 
rolling up the mountains and the yellow and lilac 
country below ; but there were no bears. I also 
did some reading, including Colonel French's lecture 
on Cavalry Manoeuvres and Henderson's Strategy 
and its Teaching, just to remind me that I was a 
soldier as well as a vagabond. Then I had to do a 
little doctoring. Poor Jack was suffering from a 
bad eye. I really thought he had lost it from a 
thorn or something. I bathed it with tea, and after- 
wards with a lead lotion, and it got better and Jack 
began to enjoy life again. 

How far can one see a man ? From my position 
on the ridge one day, looking on to the Liddar, I 
could see a bridge over it, and two or three people 
crossing it at different times. My shikari has good 
sight, but could only see the piers of the bridge, 
and said the roadway had, he thought, been carried 
away by the floods. I bet him a rupee it was there. 
My field glasses proved that I was right. With 
them I could even see which way the planks of the 
roadway were laid ! I had also pointed out some 
cattle which he and his assistant could not at first 
see. Then we had a match at counting them, wherein 



334 A HUNTER AS PANEL DOCTOR 
we ran a dead heat ; but I eventually won the com- 
petition in an underhand way by spotting the 
herdsmen in charge of the cattle. We all looked 
in vain for him till I noticed a bush on the hillside 
above the cattle, and I Sherlock-Holmesed that the 
man would like to be in the shade and, at the same 
time, in a position commanding a view of his charges, 
so I made a shot at it, and said he was by the bush : 
and when we turned the glasses on we found I was 
correct. The distance according to the map was 
apparently over three miles. 

There was a good deal about this spot that reminded 
me of England. Besides blackberries, hazel-copses, 
brier-roses, and yew trees, etc., we found cackling 
old blackbirds in the jungle, and round my camp there 
were wood-pigeons who were never tired of cooing 
out that they were " Pleased to see you ! very pleased 
to see you ! " Nice of them, but they would not 
have been so pleased to see me had they known that 
it was only fear of frightening away the bears that 
prevented me from shooting one or two of them for 
food. Chicken, always chicken, was the only meat 
one could get there ; not that I minded, it was all 
the same to me, still it was rather the " same," all 
the same. 

I sent my bearer to put the fleet out of com- 
mission. I had decided not to boat any more, the 
month for which I had engaged them being nearly 
up. The next day the boatmen turned up in camp 
to " say good-bye," i.e., to get some backshish, or 
any old clothes, which they are very keen on, although 
they do not seem to wear them. I gave them an 
old Bee clock, value when new about three shillings, 
that did not go very well. That and some lead lotion 




THE POST OFFICE AND CLUB AT ACHIBAL 




THE WATCHMAN'S DESPAIR 335 
for one of their children's eyes was all they got for 
their thirty-mile walk, but they went away quite 
happy. 

Day dawning was a beautiful sight, the Pir Punjal 
getting up blazing red long before my side of the 
vale, in the deep shadow of its mountains, thought 
of waking. There were grain store-houses in most 
of the fields. On the flat roofs of these the watch- 
men lived in little huts made of straw, and kept 
fires going all night and shouted, whistled and blew 
horns to frighten away the bears ; but, as one man 
said : " What is the good ? the bears come and eat 
by the light of the fire, and if I shout at them they 
look at me and growl ! " 

Again I sat up, a whole night this time, for bears ; 
but without result. The shikari became very un- 
happy, and to humour him I had to simulate great 
anger. I did not really care a bit, I was getting 
good exercise and splendid views, which was all I 
wanted ; but I could not explain this to the shikari, 
and anger was my only alternative. 

At last I tore myself away from the camp above 
Aieen and walked down into the Vale of Kashmir 
to Achibal. Achibal is much praised in the guide 
books and much disappoints one in consequence. 
It is a small pleasure-garden surrounding a tank that 
receives a volume of water bubbling up from under 
a rock. The chief and best feature of the place is 
the excellent quality of the fruit and vegetables 
grown by the custodian — peaches, pears, plums, and 
grand tomatoes. There were fruit trees everywhere. 
I kept knocking down apples and pears with my 
alpenstock to eat as I went along. 

One day when passing through a village where we 



336 A HUNTER AS PANEL DOCTOR 
were to get our beaters, a man was brought to me 
for treatment who, two or three months before, 
when out with a sahib bear-shooting, had been 
mauled by a bear. The bear had apparently held 
his head in its paws while it took a mouthful out 
of his face, which included one eye, half a nose, and 
part of his cheek. Poor chap ! he looked just as 

W does when making his " funny face." I had 

to give him a solution of Izal as a lotion, and some 
castor- oil to take internally. He was very nearly 
all right, but would not have been happy if I failed 
to give him some kind of medicine. 

Passing the ziarat (shrine) just opposite the 
village, all the beaters went up and touched the step, 
evidently invoking protection of the saint, a thing 
they do not often do ; but with such a standing 
reminder in the village of the chances of human life 
when beating for bears, they were more apt than 
usual to remember their duty towards their gods. 

That day we beat the wooded side of a hill, and 
after a time I saw a bear running up through the 
bush above us, about eighty yards away. I had a 
shot which brought him snarling down on to his 
nose and then brought him galloping down towards 
us. He looked exactly like repeating the little 
bear's game and coming in on to my " stand." The 
shikari stood ready with the alpenstock, but the 
beast passed just below, where it was so steep that 
I could not see him. Then he showed for a moment 
as he jumped from bush to bush across a water- 
course, and I fired a snap-shot at him which made 
him snarl, but I thought I had missed him. Luckily 
a few yards on he got into a watercourse, out of 
which he had to climb. I could see his head and 



I BAG A BEAR 337 

shoulders above the bank, and I plugged him with a 
nice steady shot that sent him with a yowl head over 
heels backwards into the nullah : this being steep 
he went on rolling out of sight into the bush below. 

My gun-carrier said, more in sorrow than in anger : 
" Bug gaya " (He's got away). And in the excite- 
ment of the moment I talked English to him and 
said : " I bet you what you like he hasn't ' bugged,' 
all the same." I knew that last shot had sickened 
him. 

There was so much yelling from the beaters down 
below that we thought he must have got among 
them. My shikari dashed down the hill and I after 
him, but my gun-carrier, wearing ordinary shoes, 
slipped about and could not travel, so I took the 
gun from him and went on after the shikari. There 
he was below me taking aim into the bush with an 
old gun he had taken from a beater. I thought to 
myself : " That man is going to lose his face ; either 
the gun will miss fire and the bear will come out and 
take a mouthful, or the gun will go off and burst." 
The gun missed fire, but the bear didn't come out ; 
he could not — he was stone dead. I was glad to 
find that all my three shots had hit him well. The 
first in the shoulder, smashing his leg ; the second 
in the ribs ; the third through the heart. Not so 
bad for my " rifle," which is merely an ordinary 
regimental carbine. But since wounding my first 
bear when I had only service ammunition, I had sent 
in to Srinagar to the excellent " Whiteley " of the 
place, Samud Shah, and had got some " sporting " 
ammunition which made all the difference. 

While I was sketching the dead bear there was a 
yelling from the beaters up the hill to say that 

z 



338 A HUNTER AS PANEL DOCTOR 
another bear, of course a " monster/' had passed 
my original position and got away. Another two 
beats produced nothing, and then came driving, 
blinding rain, under which we eventually retired 
home, finding bright, clear sunshine below. 




Got him at last. 



On the way down one of the beaters slipped and dis- 
located his shoulder. He was brought to me just out- 
side the ziarat. I laid him on his back and took off 
my right chapli, as it was his right arm that was out. 
The crowd, eager to help, dashed at my other chapli 
and had that off too. I sat down by him, as if for 
American cock-fighting, stuck my heel into his arm- 



MY EMBARRASSING FAME 339 

pit, and then pulled tug-of-war with his arm, while 
the shikari held him down. He did not like it, 
poor chap, but in a moment it was all over, the arm 
came in with a click. The crowd cheered, he fainted, 
his mother sobbed. Then there came a discussion 
as to whether he was not dead : then they began 
to get excited and not to like me any more, but in 
the midst of it he sat up looking very sheepish at 
finding himself all right and not half the hero he 
had been a minute before. Afterwards I gave him 
some Jacob's oil to rub on the shoulder, and castor — 
well, no, I was beginning to run short of that, so 
I let him off it. 

Although I only undislocated the arm at 5 p.m. 
in the afternoon, the next morning, before I went to 
the mountain at 7 a.m., poor creatures were coming 
in to be cured of their various ailments. My fame 
as a doctor had already spread. They were beyond 
laughter and treating with castor-oil. There was 
one poor old boy all warped and gnarled with chronic 
rheumatism, who had hobbled in four miles. Jacob's 
oil and flannel bandage treatment was what I 
prescribed. Another young fellow had been carried, 
a mere skeleton suffering from ulcers in his legs. 
He had evidently long resigned himself to die, the 
best thing for him, but they had roused him to think 
of living once more because there was a white man 
there with wondrous drugs. It was not only his 
anxious look that appealed to me, but those of his 
mother and womenkind, who had broken through 
their custom of hiding away from a white man, and 
were hovering round looking for a hopeful sign. 
Solution of glycerine and carbolic acid and my good 
wishes were what he got. Another, a strong-looking 



340 A HUNTER AS PANEL DOCTOR 
man, was spitting blood. I gave him ice-cold water 
to drink and had it applied on chest and back. I 
only wished I had possessed a big supply of medicines 
to give the poor things. The fellow with the dis- 
located arm came grinning to show me that it was 
now just as strong as the other. 

The next day I had more patients. Another case 
of rheumatism called for more Jacob's oil and flannel 
and sweating. An emaciated boy was carried in with 
a painful swelling of the thigh. I ordered milk, fomen- 
tation, and gentle massage with Jacob's oil. A man 
with an open sore on ankle got solution of Izal. 
In the evening I walked down to the village to see 
my patients, and got a lot of new ones, more sores, 
abscesses, opthalmic eyes, rheumatism, and fever. 
I had come to be regarded as something between a 
wizard and a panel doctor. 

When bear driving there are long waits while the 
beaters are getting to their places. It suddenly 
occurred to me one day to write a book on scouting. 
So during these waits I jotted down in my note-book 
first heads for chapters, and finally subjects of para- 
graphs. In a very short time I had finished it, 
ready for a shorthand writer to take down from dicta- 
tion. Thus I killed two birds with one stone : I got on 
paper what 1 had long wanted to put before my men, 
and which brought me later the price of a polo-pony. 

As a reward for my ministering to the sick, there 
was sent to me at the end of a long day a very big 
bear. Venit — vidi — vici. He looked out of the 
jungle quietly, just as an old boar does, then he began 
to move as if to pass between me and the beaters. 
If I waited to fire it would be at the risk of hitting 
a beater, so I took him where he was, looking towards 



THE PURSUIT 341 

me, with only his ears and forehead above the grass, 
and missed him ! Just like me ! I can sometimes 
hit a bird flying, but never one sitting. So it was 
with the bear ; when he turned to bolt for the jungle 
I banged a second shot at him which hit him in the 




Our pack of bear-hounds ! 



withers and checked his pace and, just as he plunged 
into the jungle, I changed his plunge into a dive 
with a shot from behind, and he fell dead a few yards 
further on. When I got down to where he lay with 
the beaters jabbering round him, he looked like a 
respectable old gentleman who had for once imbibed 
too freely, and was lying in the gutter in his glossy 



342 A HUNTER AS PANEL DOCTOR 
black clothes with a ribald crowd jeering round him. 
Instinctively I looked round for his tall hat and for 
a hansom to take him home. 

On returning to camp I found lots of patients, 
including two new ones from a new village. One 
was a case of hepatitis ; being out of podophyllin, 
I prescribed castor oil, hot fomentation and, as he 
looked sad, a little whiskey and water to take if 
his caste allowed of it ; if not, to rub in externally ! 
The other had a nasty abscess on the forearm, 
to which I applied a poultice made of oatmeal 
porridge, having nothing else to make it with. 
Soon I had twenty regular patients upon my books, 
and I foresaw that I should either have to leave the 
district or start a brougham. I had no particular 
ambition to become a jungle doctor, remembering 
that by profession I was an inflictor, and not a 
healer of wounds. These considerations, added to 
the fact that I had beaten out most of the covers in 
the neighbourhood, determined me to move my camp 
to the next valley, a similar little basin in the hills 
called Bringhin, which possessed a view almost 
identical with the valley of my miracles. 

On my arrival at Bringhin the headman of the 
village told me he had just received notice that a 
Sahib was coming on the following day to shoot this 
valley ; but as I was now in possession he would 
send a messenger to stop him. That proved a lucky 
move of mine ! 

My bearer brought, as part of my stock in trade on 
this trip, a big umbrella, which I had in Nepaul. 1 
jeered at him at first for doing so ; but I found it 
of the greatest comfort in camp. I rigged it up on 
my alpenstock, on the " lawn," and it gave me shade 



MISSING BEARS 343 

for writing or drawing when there did not happen 
to be any good trees handy. 

Good apples and pears grew about in the jungle 
here. I wonder somebody does not start a cider 
factory in Kashmir. There would be a great sale 
for the stuff among the regiments in India ! 

In response to messages I had sent saying there 
were bears in my neighbourhood, Major Heneage 
of the 5th D.G. joined me. At first we had some little 




Went away smiling. 

difference of opinion as to the date. There was no 
rancour, as we were both anxious for accurate informa- 
tion. I thought it was the nth. Heneage thought 
it was the 9th, so we eventually agreed to split the 
difference and call it the 10th. In the result it 
was a day which might just as well have been left 
out, a veil might well be drawn over it. I saw three 
bears at different times and missed them. Of course 
I could give a thousand reasons why I missed them ; 
but it does not alter the fact that they went away 
smiling. Two of them crossed a narrow path in the 



344 A HUNTER AS PANEL DOCTOR 
bush on which Heneage was also posted lower down, 
so I could not fire till they were entering the bush 
on the other side. The shikari said I hit one in the 
head. We plunged into the jungle after him, but 
I knew that I had not, and we failed to find him. 
The third Heneage shot at and I tried acting as 
second barrel to him and failed ! After this Heneage 
very wisely said : " Let's talk about botany." 

In anticipation of the anniversary of our both 
joining the service I had bought a fattened sheep. 
He had been killed and we feasted. Our menu was : 

Potage, Mulligatawny ; Roti, Gigot de Mouton ; 
Legumes, Chou, Pommes de Terres ; Salade aux 
Tomates ; Entremets, Plum Poudin ; Fromage, 
Old Dutch ; Dessert, Peches, Pokes, Raisins (grapes), 
Pommes, Prunes, Acrotes (Kashmiri for Walnuts, 
French forgotten) ; Cafe noir ; Vins, Whiskey 
ecossais. 

One day the lumbardar (headman) of the village, 
Shah Wali Khan, presented himself as a candidate 
either for backshish or medicine ; but he looked an 
expensive patient. He was as big as a hippopotamus 
and asked for medicine to take down his " corpora- 
tion." I said I had nothing to meet his case. He 
said that was all nonsense, the last doctor who came 
(he classed me as a doctor) gave him forty-two pills 
in one day, and they did him a power of good. So 
I gave him a mustard leaf, and though it could 
cover only a tiny percentage of the vast acreage 
available, I hoped its sting would convince the old 
man that it was doing him a wonderful amount of 
good. The following day he came and simply loaded 
me with thanks and praise ; he had, in spite of his 
layers of defensive tissue, felt the sting of the leaf 



A PARTING 345 

right through him : it had already begun to do its 
work : he felt thinner and pounds lighter : the 
previous man's pills had been good but they were as 
nothing compared to this bit of magic which went 
straight to the hearrof the evil. 




n 



Spearing a fish. 



On what Heneage knew to be the 13th and I 
was convinced was the 15th, but which we agreed 
to call the 14th, we left Bringhin and all its bears 
behind. We walked the seven miles to Pangut, where 
we fished, he with a rod, I with a spear. After 
breakfast we parted, he for Srinagar, whilst I directed 
my steps towards a little village some sixteen miles 
off called Vernag, which is an old garden of 



346 A HUNTER AS PANEL DOCTOR 
Jehangire (1612) at the extreme end of the Vale of 
Kashmir. 

I stopped a day at Vernag getting carriers, a work 
of difficulty, as the road out of Kashmir (via Jammu) 
was private, the property of the maharajahs, and 
the Government was not helpful. A special permit 
is necessary before you can go by that road. As it 
went out by Sialkote, our future home, I wanted 
to see it, else any other route would be preferable. 
The Maharajah lives at Srinagar all the summer, and 
at Jammu, close to Sialkote, in the winter. I was 
unfortunate in being on the road just when he was 
moving. He himself always goes by the tonga 
road, by which I came up ; but his wives, court, 
tagrag and bobtail go by my road and all the avail- 
able carriers are used by them. 

As I walked up the Banihal Pass (9,200 feet), the 
weather, which for three days past had been cold, 
cloudy and rainy, as if ashamed of its behaviour to me, 
cleared up into a brilliant clear day, and as I mounted 
to the top of the pass a glorious view of the Vale of 
Kashmir unfolded itself, more especially of the moun- 
tains beyond. During the past three days these had 
put on a brilliant covering of brand-new snow 
and looked splendid. It was a view to remember. 
At last I unwillingly turned my back on this fitting 
finale to the long succession of minor beauties I had 
seen in Kashmir ; and I trotted down the treeless 
3,000 feet of steep hill leading among the Jammu 
Hills towards India. 

Every three or four hundred yards are small block 
houses built for natives to take shelter in when using 
the pass in winter, the blizzards and snowdrifts being 
fatal. On the pass we came on a very old, feeble 



NEWS OF OMDURMAN 347 

man sitting by the roadside singing prayers quietly to 
himself. He joined our party for a bit as wayfarers 
will and told us he was walking from Srinagar, fifty 
miles distant, to some native state ten days' march 
beyond Jammu (that is, nine marches, eighteen of 
his, from where we were), to look for his son who had 
left him a year ago. At first I thought of doing 
his job for him by post and telegraph ; but he did 
not know what town or village his son might be in, 
and was rather hazy about which state. Caste 
prevented him from using my milk or mutton, so 
when he sank down again at the roadside I left him 
to pray, the richer by twopence and my good wishes. 
At the village of Deogul (alias Banihal), I made love 
to the Tehsildar by calling him " Ap " (you) instead 
of " Turn " (thou) and by shaking hands with him. 
I thus got him to complete my number of carriers 
(fourteen) to go right through to Jammu with me. 
I was no longer dependent on the chance of getting 
men at each village and could camp where I liked. 
This Tehsildar told me that the British had had a 
big fight in Egypt in which they had killed twenty- 
four thousand of the enemy, and had lost twelve 
officers and a lot of men. I had not seen a news- 
paper lately, so I was somewhat sceptical ; but 
it was true, after all, and it was thus that I 
obtained the first news of the battle of Omdur- 
man fought and won by Lord Kitchener on 
September 2nd. The Tehsildar added about ten 
thousand to the enemy's losses ; but that was a 
detail. About five miles beyond Ramsu, lying 
under a rock alongside my tent-site, having arrived 
before us, was my old friend of the Banihal Pass. 
' Tired ? " " No, Sahib, I've been walking all my 



348 A HUNTER AS PANEL DOCTOR 
life, I oughtn't to be tired now. But I was wanting 
food yesterday. To-day I'm all right." This cost 
me twopence more ! The guide-book calls the 
distance from Ramsu to Ramban thirteen miles, 
Cowdra (my lunch-carrier) said it was twenty-six. 
When we had come about seven I asked him how 
far on. " Oh, about seven." " Then we've come 
nineteen ? " I queried. " We've come about eight," 
was the reply. " But that makes the total fifteen, 
and you said twenty-six." " Oh, well, God knows 
the distance." That is his invariable way out of a 
difficulty. He knows no arithmetic and is bad at 
guessing distances, and when in a hole falls back 
on his Maker. I found by experience that the dist- 
ance is about twenty miles, very easy walking, the 
last seven being along the green slopes of the full- 
flowing sunny Chenab river, a contrast after the 
boiling torrent, with its precipices and tough old pine 
trees all in the shade of the steep mountain above. 

At Ramban I slept for the first time for two 
months under a roof, in the rest-house, a clean, empty 
native house. My room had five windows and two 
doors, so it was well ventilated. 

One day an old woman passed me on the road, 
with some odd-looking fruit in her bundle. She 
handed me over two and was packed up and trotting 
on again before I could pay her. I sent a halfpenny 
after her, and she hurried back with a sort of: 
" Begad, you want to play the game of seeing who 
can be most generous, do you, sir ? " and started 
unpacking again and overwhelming me with fruit. 
They looked like a cross between an apple and a 
small pumpkin, and tasted like an apple made of 
wood. They are called " Bee." 



CURIOUS MERCHANDISE 349 

Curiously enough I always find that when living 
a real outdoor life like this, with lots of exercise, 
I take much less food and sleep than usual. My 
lunch-carrier remarked on it one day, saying that 
he had always thought that the strength of Sahibs 
he had served with came from the amount of food 
they ate ; but it seemed to him that the less I ate 
the faster I walked. 

I told him, one day, that I might possibly go to 
England next year instead of coming to Kashmir. 
He promptly sniggled to himself ; and when I 
asked what he was laughing at he said that so many 
of his Sahibs had made that announcement to him, 
and their going home always resulted in their coming 
out again with a wife : and then they gave up 
shooting expeditions and only visited the easier 
parts of Kashmir. He has not married himself. 
It was too expensive and he was saving up for it. 
He would have to give one hundred and twenty to 
two hundred rupees (ten or twelve pounds) to the 
parents of a young lady of such standing as would 
be received by his family. This really seems a 
very sensible plan in several ways. 

The exports of Kashmir are walnuts, and the 
imports empty kerosine-oil tins, forty-two in one 
carrier's load. There may be others of which I 
have not heard. I have met hundreds of carriers 
laden up with oil tins but do not know for what 
they are used except that a few Hindoo temples 
are roofed with them, to look like silver. I suppose 
the silversmiths use the rest in making silver things 
for the English visitors. 

When I arrived at Nagrota it was with the know- 
ledge that, alas ! it was to be my last camp. I 



350 A HUNTER AS PANEL DOCTOR 
walked in five miles to Jammu, through the town 
and on two miles across the splendid suspension 
bridge over the Tawi to the railway station, where 
I put up for the day. I found on my arrival that it 
was September 26th and not the 27th, as 1 had 
thought ! I had got a day out again somehow. I 
paid off my fourteen carriers at six annas a day and 








The chief imports of Kashmir. 

some backshish thrown in, also the four permanent 
coolies and shikari. The latter hung about, as 
all Kashmiris do, trying to get some extra backshish, 
a knife, waterproof-sheet, old clothes, anything, 
in fact. They are awful beggars. 
k Then I sent a note to the Governor of Jammu and 
asked him if he could help me to a carriage to drive 
round the city. A polite note and a grand landau 
with two servants, etc., came back, and I drove 
round in great style. The town is very clean and 
well looked after, with numbers of well-kept Hindu 



THE BILL 351 

temples. The palace is a large courtyard surrounded 
by native two-storied houses with a few good bal- 
conies. The square was filled with orderlies, horses, 
elephants, etc., ready should the rajah want to go 
out. The red house outside the town is the Crown 
Prince's palace. 

I saw the Dewan and thanked him for his carriage. 
James gave me my last dinner in the waiting-room, 
cooked in the verandah on a range made in two 
minutes with a few bricks and stones. Then off 
by 10 p.m. train to Sialkote. 

My expenses during the two months' trip amounted 
to six hundred and sixteen rupees (about thirty- 
nine pounds). The items of expenditure were as 
follows : 

Rupees 

Rail fare to R. Pindi and back 90 

„ „ „ „ 2 servants 48 

Two ekkas to Baramoola, servants 4° 

Tonga seat for self 38 

Food en route, etc. 18 

1 month hire of doonga and men's rations 24 

„ „ „ kitchen boat „ „ „ 18 

„ „ „ dinghy „ „ „ 5 

Beaters for bear-shooting, 10 days 7° 

License ditto 21 
Pay of shikari i| months at 20 Rs., and rations at 3 Rs. 37 

„ „ 4 permanent coolies at 6 Rs., rations at 2 Rs. 50 

Pay of carriers when marching 22 

„ „ „ Vernag to Jammu 65 

Cost of stores 5° 

„ „food 20 

616 



APOLOGIA 

YES, India is a land of mystery and romance 
beneath its sun-dried face. The modern 
white man there seems out of place. Tommy 
Atkins drinks his beer in a canteen which was once 
the palace of a King ; the subaltern hunting his pig 
pops over the tombstone of a Grand Mogul ; and 
even Jack in gazing at the mosque of Shah Jehan 
is thinking, " What a place for rats ! " 

I feel ashamed. I will close my book of memories. 
They are to me a summer's day of much sunshine 
and few clouds. They have little value for anybody 
else. Even their soldiering lessons may be getting 
out of date, since, as Lord Sydenham expresses it of 
soldiers who have left the Service, I am already " if 
not obsolete, at least obsolescent." But at any 
rate, if the reader has had the perseverance to wade 
all through them — for my part I only read the 
right-hand pages of a book — he will at least have 
learnt that snipe may be stewed in gin and that 
mustard may be taken with lemon pudding ! 



fe,^€ 




INDEX 



INDEX 



Abdurrahman, Ameer, 124, 147, 

152 
Abimanyu, another Nero, 304 
" Absalom " jumps, 32 
Achibal, 335 
Acland, Dr., 3 

Adjutant's first question, the, 93 
Adonis killed by a boar, 39 
Advertisement, the result of an, 

234. 235 
Afghan disturbs a picnic, an, 265, 

266 
Afghan guns, 267 
Afghan helps to build the gallows 

on which he is to be hung, 133 
Afghan thieves, 144, 152-155 
Afghan War, the, 123-160 
Afridis, 206, 222, 273-275 ; their 

principal object in life, 206 
Agnew, Captain Ouentin, 163-166 
Aieen, 335 

A jit Singh murders Dhyan Singh, 119 
Akadbully camp, 197 
Akbar, the Emperor, conquers 

Kashmir, 302 
" Algernon " and the old mare, 225, 

226 
Alexander the Great in India, 145, 

232, 268, 269 ; the death of, 268, 

269 
Alexander, Boyd, his dislike of 

shooting elephants, 245 
Aligarh, manoeuvres near, 275, 276 
Amamath, the cave of, 308 
Amateur theatricals, 92-100, 132 
Animal fights as entertainments, 

258 
Ant-heaps, 200 
Army examination, the unexpected 

result of an, 3 
Asoka conquers Kashmir, 302 
Assurance of a subaltern, the, 134 
Atkins, Tommy, linguist, 264, 265 

pigsticking, 49-51 
Attis, a bore, 40 
Ayub Khan, 124, 131, 135 



Babington, General, 82 

Baden-Powell, Mrs., the author's 
mother, 38, 70, 76 

Baden-Powell, Professor, 3 

Baden-Powell, Lt.-Gen. Sir Robert, 
K.C.B., at Charterhouse, 1-3, 312; 
his first lesson in tactics, 1 ; at 
Oxford, 3 ; takes the Army 
examination, 3 ; his unexpected 
pass, 3 ; is excused going to 
Sandhurst, 4, 20 ; commissioned 
to the 13th Hussars, 4, 31 ; his 
first voyage to India, 4-10 ; ex- 
periences a storm in the Bay of 
Biscay, 5-7 ; a good sailor, 6 ; 
and a distressed lady, 6, 7 ; on 
the disadvantages of gallantry, 7 ; 
his impressions of Port Said, 8 ; 
in the Red Sea, 9 ; and his 
" wonderful " telescope, an early 
example of his cunning, 9, 10; 
his first arrival in India, 13 ; his 
ignominious entry into Bombay, 
13 ; joins his regiment, 15 ; is 
engaged by his servants, 16 ; his 
first impression of India and the 
natives, 17, 18; his early 
military training, 19, 20 ; his 
companions in adventure, 20 ; his 
caricatures, 20, 21 ; an escapade 
and its consequences, 20, 21 ; his 
cure for fever, 21 ; on the sobriety 
of the modern soldier, 27, 28 ; 
on developing intelligence and 
self-reliance, 29 ; is consulted 
by the German Emperor on a 
military matter, 30 ; on the plea- 
sures and lessons of polo, 31-36; 
on pigsticking and the boar, 30, 
31, 36-69, 90, 91, 106, 181, 224- 
226, 247, 258, 261, 262, 279 ; his 
early pigsticking experiences, 57- 
62 ; wins the Kadir Cup, 62-65 ; 
introduces a novelty in pigstick- 
ing, 67, 68 ; his description of a 
" holiday," 71 ; on the polite 



355 



356 



INDEX 



Baden-Powell, Lt.-Gen. Sir Robert, 
K.C.B. (contd.) 

attentions of one'? friends, 71, 72 ; 
his innocence is imposed upon, 
74, 75 ; his Christmas journey 
to his regiment, 76, 77 ; pig- 
sticking with the Duke of Con- 
naught, 77, 78 ; and a poser from 
the German Emperor, 80 , 81 ; on 
sensations pleasant and otherwise, 
82-84 ; drives a train, 83, 84 ; 
introduces a new dish, 85 ; on 
sociability in India, 87, 88 ; his 
Adjutant's first question, 93 ; 
his services as scene-painter, 93 ; 
his ambi-dexterity, 93 ; his early 
theatrical performances, 94 ; 
brings down the house, 97 ; his 
" disreputable " friend, 99, 100 ; 
on sickness among troops, 101- 
103 ; on regimental surgeons, 
103-105 ; on the training of 
scouts, 107, no; his method 
at inspections, 114, 115 ; in the 
Afghan campaign, 126-160 ; at 
Kandahar, 131 ; his stout stick 
and beautiful smile, 131 ; at 
the battle-field of Maiwand, 134- 
138 ; his map-making, 137, 140, 
147 ; tracks a runaway horse, 
148, 149 ; on the meanness of 
the Government, 149 ; is the last 
to leave Kandahar, 152 ; shoots 
himself, 155-159 ; hears his own 
death announced, 156 ; is stalked 
by a leopard, 158 ; his first trial 
as a scout, 159, 160 ; his sacrifice 
to efficiency, 160 ; his first 
meeting with Lord Roberts, 162 ; 
learns Hindustani on the advice 
of Lord Roberts, 162, 180; dis- 
guises himself as a War Correspon- 
dent, 165, 166 ; on ragging, 166- 
168 ; flees from Society at Mus- 
soorie, 173 ; goes tiger-shooting, 
181-204 ; is nearly shot by a man 
and by a mule, 191 ; acts as a 
doctor, 193, 194, 321, 336, 338- 
340, 342, 344, 345 ; shoots a 
bear, 195 ; on the value of the 
North West Frontier, 205 ; on 
" Sepoy Generals," 205 ; on 
officers old and new, 208 ; at a 
row in the Buner Country, 208- 
223 ; on a subaltern in war-time, 
210 ; and his pet boar, " Alger- 
non," 224-226 ; on snakes, 226- 
228 ; and his horses, 228-235 ; 



Baden-Powell, Lt.-Gen. Sir Robert, 
K.C.B. (contd.) 

on the key to horsemanship, 233 ; 
on camels, 235 ; on the value of 
bullocks, 235, 236 ; on hunting 
with cheetahs, 236-238 ; on 
black buck shooting, 238-240 ; 
on the strategy of a panther, 240, 
242 ; and his pet panther, 243, 
244 ; on elephants, 245-256 ; and 
the smell of a dead elephant, 247, 
248 ; attends an elephant fight, 
252-256 ; on native Princes, 257- 
264 ; is entertained by the 
Maharajah of Patiala, 259-264 ; 
his description of a nautch dance, 
263, 264 ; on the success of 
British rule in India, 265 ; at 
an interrupted picnic, 265, 266 ; 
on Indian soldiers, 269-279 ; on 
native swordsmanship, 269-272 ; 
on drums and their effect, 277, 
278 ; on native servants, 283- 
285 ; in Kashmir, 288-351 ; 
meets Prince Louis of Batten- 
berg's double, 293 ; fish-spear- 
ing, 297 ; falls under the wiles 
of native dealers, 302-304 ; on 
the character of the Kashmiris, 
305 ; he reaches Kumbul, 308 ; 
on the desirability of a wife who 
can sketch, 310, 317 ; his precious 
field-glasses, 319 ; glissading on 
his back, 329 ; finds cord shoes 
the best, 330 ; his long sight, 333, 
334 ; at Achibal, 335 ; undis- 
locates a beater's arm, 338 , 339; 
his fame as a doctor spreads, 339 ; 
writes his book on Scouting, 340 ; 
his unfailing prescription, 342 ; 
differs with Major Heneage as 
to the date, 343 ; celebrates an 
anniversary, 344 ; his inadequate 
remedy for corpulence, 344 ; on 
the view from the top of Banihal 
Pass, 346 ; meets a generous 
woman, 348 ; on the effect of 
eating on walking, 349 ; on the 
exports and imports of Kashmir, 
349 ; at Jammu, 350 ; his ex- 
penses for a two months' trip, 

351 
Baker, Lady, charged by a boar, 48 
Baker, Sir Samuel, 47-49 
" Baker's Dozen, The," the 13th 

Hussars, 26 
Bala Khan and tiger-hunting, 183- 

204 



Baluchistan, 124 

Bambro, King, and Lolare, 302 

Banihal Pass, 346, 347 

Bara Valley, 222 

Baramoola, 293-295 

Bareilly, 182 

Battenberg, Prince Louis of, 

double, 293 
Bawan, 308, 310 
Bay of Biscay, a storm in the, 



5-7 
Bear-hunting, 195, 313-315, 320, 

324-344 
Beatty, Mr., Transport Officer, 210 
" Bee " fruit, 348 
Beer, stale, as a tonic, 27 
Bees attack a man, 15 
Bethune, General, his early work, 

literary and musical, 20 
Bhoosa, 159 
Bhurtpore, the Rajah of, and his 

hospitality, 258, 259 
Bicycle, tracking a lost, 85-87 
Bicycling, regimental, 182 
Bidjbehara, 307 
Birds, Indian, 18, 56, 84, 85, 197, 

247, 259 
Black buck shooting, 238-240 
Blagrove, Colonel, 57 
Blood, Sir Bindon, on the value of 

cavalry, 114 ; and trouble in the 

Buner Country, 210-215 
Boar attacks its young, a, 40 
Boar, the education of a young, 44, 

45 
Boars, wild, 30, 31, 36-69, 90, 91, 

106, 181, 224-226, 242, 247, 258, 

261, 262, 279 
Boer War, the, 4, 29, 100, no 
Bolan Pass, 124, 125 
Bombay, 13 
Bonnet, a mysteriously popular, 

147 
" Boswell's Life of Johnson," a 

dog that died of too much dinner, 

18 
Bower, Corporal, is knocked over 

by Sir Baker Russell, 24 
" Boy, The," see McLaren, Captain 
Boy Scouts, 117, 118, 177, 278, 281 
Brahman's dislike to touch leather, 

287 
Braithwaite, Captain, " Papa," 58 
Bramley, Mr., the Sherlock Holmes 

of the Indian Police, 283 
Breitmann, Hans, and the pigs, 41 
Bridge-building by officers, 170 
Bringhin, 342, 345 
British rule in India, 265 



INDEX 357 

British soldiers as linguists, 264, 265 
Brookfield, Mr. A. M., M. P., as 

pantaloon, 94 
" Bucephalus," 231, 232 
Buck, 196, 237-240 
Buck-hunting with cheetah, 236-238 
his Buck-jumping, 231 
Buffaloes, 47 

Bullock-carts, 13, 236, 277 
Bullocks, 235, 236 
Bunbury, Mr., Political Officer, 211 
Buner Country, a row in the, 208- 

223 
Burrows, General, 124 
Bushman, Colonel, on " the queen 

of weapons," 41 



Cake and raspberry vinegar, 71 

Calcutta, Nepaul, 197 

Calendar, a regimental, 112, 113 

Camels, 129, 235 

Caricatures, and a useful lesson, 20, 

21 
Carriers, native, 309-312 
Cattle-thieves, 282, 283 
Cavagnari, Major, the British Resi- 
dent at Kabul, 124 
Cavalry : Sir Baker Russell on the 

duty of, 113 ; Sir Bindon Blood 

on the value of, 114; Indian, 

269-273, 276-279 
Chakdara, crossing the, 145 
Chamberlain, Mr. Joseph, and the 

S. A. C, 29 
Chamberlain, Sir Neville, 310 
Charasia, the Afghan defeat at, 124 
Charterhouse, the author at, 1-3,312 
Cheetahs, 236-238 
Chenab river, the, 348 
" Cherry Ripe," Millais, 152 
Chinar Bagh, 299, 302 
Chinar trees, 298, 299, 308 
Chinkara deer, 238, 239 
Cholera, and its uncertainty, 90- 

92, 100 
Christmas in India, 76, 7/ 
Churani Pani bungalow, 179 
Church Mission Schools in Kashmir, 

the, 280, 281 
Churchill, Mr. Winston M.P., on 

polo, 35 ; on the us;Jessness of 

trying to suppress him, 36 
Cobra, 226-228 
Commissariat officer and Sir Baker 

Russell, 23 
Connaught, the Duchess of, on a 

runaway elephant, 250, 251 ; at 

Deeg, 258 



358 



INDEX 



Connaught, the Duke of, 54, 55, 77, 

78, 100, 258 
Constable, Lieut. Pat., and Lord 

Lytton, 95 ; and the Colonel, 

96 
Cord shoes, 330 

Corpse used as a saddle rack, a, 142 
" Crib," a bull terrier, 18, 19 
Crocodile-hunting, 282 
Cruikshank, 58-60 
Curios from Dais, 190 
Curragh, The, 168-170 

Dais, 190 

Dak bungalows, 291 

Daka-ki-Garhi, 200 

Dal Lake, 300 

Dancing elephant, a, 246, 247 

Dead dog, to be buried with a, 134 

Dealers, the wiles of Kashmiri, 302, 

3°3 
Deeg, 258 
Deer, 44, 238, 239 
Delhi, the capture of, 259 
Deodar woods, 164, 316, 318, 322, 

323 

Deogul, the Tehsildar of, 347 
Dholpur, the Ranah and Rani of, 

280 
Dhyan Singh, the murder of the 

Rajah, 119, 120 
Didhoof Nag, 313-315, 320 
Difference between a panther and a 

leopard, the, 242 
Dimond, Major, joined the 13th 

Hussars, 19, 91 ; the death of, 91 
" Ding," see MacDougal, Major 
Disease in India, the suddenness of 

its attack, 90, 91 
Doctor, the author as a, 193, 194, 

321, 33 6 - 338-34°. 34 2 » 344, 345 

Dodgson, Rev. C. L. (Lewis Carroll), 
the author of Alice in Wonder- 
land, 3 

Doonga, a, 295, 296, 306 

Downe, Lord, 54 

Doyne, Mickie, his commissariat, 84 

Dragoon Guards, the 5th, 28 

Drill Book, the, 139 

Drums, the effect of, 277, 278 

Duck-shooting, 259 

Earthquakes, 294 

Elephants, 189, 195, 198, 201, 245- 

256 
Ellis, Major, and tiger-shooting, 

182-201, 203 
English ladies in India, 11 6-1 18 



English tourist, a Hindu sermon 

stopped by an, 307, 308 
Enteric fever, 90, 92, 100, 101 
Enthusiasm, misplaced, 167 
Escapade and its consequences, an, 

20, 21 
Expenses for a two months' holiday, 

the, 351 
Exports and imports of Kashmir, 

the, 349 
Extracting a bullet, 156, 157 
Eyes, the natives' extra, 312 

Fakirs, 308 

Fever, a treatment for, 21, 22 

Field-glasses, the author's most 

precious possession, 319 
Fight between a tiger and a boar, a, 

4 r "43 
Fight between elephants, a, 252-256 
Fights between the Charterhouse 

boys and the butcher boys, 1-3 
Fire Brigade, an enthusiastic, 167 
Fish-spearing, 297, 298 
Fitzgerald, Captain, of the Blues, 

211, 212 
Flies, 192, 193, 204 
Flogging an elephant, 252 
Flowers, Indian, 317 
Folklore of Kashmir, The, 268 
Football at Charterhouse, 312 ; 

Indian, 280 
Fraser, Surgeon-Major, 126-128, 131 

211 
Fray, Sergeant, pigsticking, 50 
Freeman, Lewis, 69 
French, Sir John, 333 

Ganges, the, 283 

Garbi, 291 

Gardner, Colonel Alexander, of the 
Sikh Army, 11 9-122 

Gauld, Farrier, pugilist and knitter, 
89 

Generous woman, a, 348 

German Emperor, the, on the length 
of the lance, 30 ; on the placing 
of troops on parade, 80 

Ghazi, a brave, 217, 218, 220, 221 

Ghazis, 131-134, 217-221 

Ghoorkas, 200, 273-275 

Gin, snipe cooked in, 85, 352 

Girl Guides, 118 

Godfather, the author's, see Ste- 
phenson, Robert 

Gordon, Lindsay, poems of, 163 

Gore, Major St. John, tiger-shoot- 
ing, 183-204, 241 



INDEX 



359 



Gough, General Sir Hugh, V.C., 

310 
Gough, Major, charged by a boar for 

three miles, 46 
" Gridirons," parallel water-courses, 

32 
Griffin and tiger, 197 
Gypsies, 281, 282 

Hackery, 236 

Hagan, Ben, and his basin of beer, 

27 
Haig-Brown, Dr., gives a lesson in 

tactics, 1, 2 ; a characteristic 

reply of, 3 
Hamgalpao, 323 
Hardinge, Sir Arthur, 310 
Hari Parbat, 299 
Harris, Captain, 72 
Haughton, Mr., The Folklore of 

Kashmir, by, 268 
Havelock, General, 16 
Heneage, Major, with the author 

in Kashmir, 343-345 
Herat, 124 
Hickman, Colonel, the death of, 

209 
Hindustani, the author learns, 162, 

180 
Hogg, Major, on pigsticking, 46, 47 
" Holiday," the description of a, 

70-72 
Horse, selling a, 234, 235 
Horses, 59-64, 78-80, 143, 148, 149, 

225, 228-235, and women, a 

comparison, 233 
Horsemanship, the true key to, 

233 
Hussars, the 13th, 4, 19, 28, 31, 88 , 
91, 125, 126, 150 

Ibex, 135 

India rubber, Mr. Winston Churchill 

and, 36 
Indian boys and their need of 

training, 17 
Indian cavalry, 269-272, 276-279 
Indian princes, 257-264 
Indian soldiers, 269-279 
Indian women, 11 8-120 
Inglis, Mr., his description of a tiger 

and boar fight, 41-43 
Interest in the regiment, 112, 113 ; 

in work, the key to success in 

training, 1 07-1 12 
Irishman gets a breakfast and a 

dog gratis, an, 209 



Islamabad, 308, 320 



" Jack," the author's dog, 173, 174, 
178, 179, 250, 296, 306, 31 1 -3 1 3, 

317. 319, 333 
Jackals, 44, 56, 136, 247, 281, 

282 
Jahangir, the Emperor, and Noor 

Mahal, 300 
Jammu, 346, 347, 350, 351 
Jamrud, Fort, 207 
Jeffry, General, 211 
Jehangire, 346 
Jehu, a terrified, 210 
Jelalabad, 124 
Jezails, 215 
Jhelum, 209 

Jhelum, the river, 290-308 
Jindan, the Rani, and her army, 

118, 119 
" Jock," the author's dog, 71, y^, 

74, 128, 142, 143, 352 
" Jogis," jackal-calling by, 281 

282 
Jubbulpore, 14, 15 
Jullundur, 72 
Jumna, the, 283 
Jungle fowl, 197 

Kabul, 124, 125 
Kadir Cup, the, 62-66 
Kandahar, 124, 125, 128, 130-152 
Kashapa and the devil, 301, 302 
Kashapa's egg, 310 
Kashap's Mir, 302 
Kashmir, 161, 280, 288-351 
Kashmir boatmen and boatwomen, 

306 
Kashmir dealers, the wiles of, 

302-304 
Kashmiris and mosquitoes singing, 

305 
Kashmiris have no consciences, 

305 
Katlunga, 210, 222 
Kavanagh, Dr., pigsticking with 

the Duke of Connaught, 54 
Khyber Pass, 124, 207 
Kipling, Mr. Rudyard, 70, 224 
Kitchener, Lord, and the battle of 

Omdurman, 347 
Kojak mountains, 125, 129 
Kokoran, 130-152 
Kookri, 274 
Krait, 226, 227 
Kumala Din, 201 
Kunbul, 308 



360 



INDEX 



Kuram valley, 124 



Ladakh, 322 

Ladies' work with Boy Scouts and 
Girl Guides, 117, 118 

Lahore, 126, 209 

Lakwar bungalow, 1 79 

Lansdowne, Lord, 310 

Lawrence, Sir John, 310 

Lehna Singh murdered Dhyan 
Singh, 119 

Lemon pudding and mustard, 85, 
352 

Leopard, the author stalked by a, 
158 

Leopards, 44, 158, 242 

Leopards and panthers, the differ- 
ence between, 242 

Levesque, M., on the boar, 55 

Liddar Valley, 308, 313, 314, 316 

Liddell, Dean, his startling an- 
nouncement, 3 

" Light literature," The British 
Almanac, 193 

Liwapatur ridge, 320, 322 

Lolare and King Bambro, 302 

Lucknow, 14-16, 125, 126 

Lunghni Valley, 316-319 

Lytton, the first Lord, 95 

Lytton, the second Lord and first 
Earl, 95 

MacDougal, Major ('■ Ding "), 
and Sir Baker Russell, 24, 25 ; 
pigsticking, 63-65 ; as a practical 
joker, 170, 171 ; at polo, 171 

McLaren, Captain (" the Boy "), 
pigsticking, 57 ; as a practical 
joker, 71, 72 ; joins the 13th 
Hussars, 126-128 ; on a tiger- 
hunt, 182-204 

McLean murdered in Ayub Khan's 
camp, 131 

Maf eking, 191 

Mahouts, 201, 246, 249, 250, 252, 
256 

Maiwand, 124, 134-138, 142, 146 

Malakand Pass, 114, 222 

" Man overboard," 10, 11 

Manipuri tribes, the, and polo, 32 

Manoeuvres, no, 272-277 

Map, a new use for a, 147 

Map-making, by the author, 137, 
140, 147 

Marble Rocks at Jubbulpore, the, 

15 

Mardan, 210 
Marmots, 319, 320 



Matabeleland, 107 

M. C. C, a new interpretation, 

184 
Medical Officer, Sir Baker Russell 

and the, 102, 103 
Meerut, 74, 77, 166, 182, 270 
Meiklejohn, General, 211 
Melon-bed for a fidgety horse, a, 

232, 233 
Military training, the author's 

early, 19, 20 
Mince-pies, unconventional, 203 
Missing Lieutenant, the, 8 
Moor, army " vet.," joins the 13th 

Hussars, 128 
Mosquitoes, 298, 305 
Mother Shipton's prophecies, 81, 82 
Mule, Attack on the author by a, 

191 
Mules disturb a service, 76 
Multan, 126 

Murder of Rajah Dhyan Singh, 119 
Murder of McLean in Ayub Khan's 

camp, 131 
Murree, 290, 291 
Mussoorie, 101, 171, 172, 178-180, 

290 
Mussuks, 291 
Mustard and lemon pudding, 85, 

352 
Mustard leaf a cure for corpulence, 

a, 344 
Mutiny, the Indian, 14, 15, 22, 259, 

285-287 
Muttra, 78, 258, 259 

Nagrota, 349 

Naini Tal, 161, 290 

Narkanda, 267 

Naroo " Canal," 297 

Native rule in India, 258 

Nautch dance, a, 263, 264 

Nepaul, 182, 183 

New dish, the author introduces a, 

85 
Noor Mahal and the Emperor 

Jahangir, 300 
North West Frontier of India, the 

value of the, 205 
Nowshera, 209 

Officers, past and present, 31, 208 

Oil-tins, the chief import of Kash- 
mir, 349 

Old temple, an, and a new chapel, 
174, 177, 178 

Oliver, Major, tiger-shooting, 182- 
199 ; his velveteen coat, 190 



INDEX 



361 



Omdurman, the battle of, 347 
On guard for fifteen years, 73 
" Oola-oola," the grand effect of, 

328. 329 
Open-house in India, 87, 88 

Paiwar Kotal, 124 

" Pandemonium " on the Serapis, 

4.5 

Pandritan, the rums at, 304 
Pangut, 345 

Panther, a pet, 243, 244 
Panther and the petticoat, the, 244 
Panther, the strategy of a, 240, 242 
Panthers, 189, 240-244 
Panthers and leopards, the differ- 
ence between, 242 
" Papa," see Braithwaite, Captain 
Parsee cricketers, the, 279 
Patiala, the Maharajah, of, 236. 

259-262 
Peepul trees, 200 
Peshawur, 209, 223 
Petherick, Mr., Vice-Consul at 

Khartoum, 48 
Petticoat, the Rani Jindan's, 119 
Phayre, General, 125 
Picnic, an interrupted, 256, 266 
" Pig-headedness " a virtue, 47, 48 
Pigsticking, 30, 31, 36-39, 90, 91, 

106, 181, 242, 258, 261, 262, 

279 
Pillibhit, 182 
Pir Punjal, 335 
Pirates, 283, 
Pirchowkee, 127 
Podophyllin, castor oil a substitute, 

for, 342 
Polo, 31-36, 91, 106, 171, 279 
Ponies, polo, 33, 34, 171 
Poplar avenues in Srinagar, 301 
Port Said, a wretched, stinking, 

filthy, picturesque, sandy place, 

8, 9 
Practical jokes, 71, 72, 74, 75, 165, 

166, 170, 171 
Preetab Singh, 262 
Price of a wife, the, 349 
Princes, Indian Native, 257-264 
Probyn, Sir Dighton M., 310 
Puglist and knitter, 89 
Punch, 83 
Puranpur, 204 

QuAiL-shooting, 202 
" Queen of weapons," the, 41 
Quetta, 70-72, 81, 96, 127, 129, 133, 
146, 159, 265 



Quoits, Sikhs', 271 



Ragging, 166-168 

Ramban, 348 

Ramsu, 347, 348 

Ran jit Singh, 122 

Raspberry vinegar and cake, 71 

Rawal Pindi, 209 

Red Sea, the horrors of the, 9 

Regimental friendships, 88, 89 ; 
surgeons, 103-105 ; calendars, 
112, 113 ; bicycle clubs, 182 ; 
feuds, 276, 277 

Roberts, Earl, in the Afghan War, 
124, 125, 130 ; the author's first 
meeting with, 162 ; advises the 
author to learn Hindustani, 162 ; 
at Bawan, 310 

Rope bridges, 292, 293 

Rosherville valley, 266 

Rosie, milk for, 74, 75 

Roulette, how to win at, 9 

Ruins at Lucknow, the, 15 

Russian invasion, a, 268 

Russell, Lady Baker, on a runaway 
elephant with the Duchess of 
Connaught, 250, 251 

Russell, Sir Baker, Colonel of the 
13th Hussars, 22 ; in the Indian 
Mutiny, 22 ; the beau ideal of a 
leader, 22 ; a devil and an angel, 
22 ; and the commissariat officer, 
22,23 ; riding down a delinquent, 
23-25 ; and " Ding " MacDougal, 
24, 25 ; and the General at an 
inspection, 25, 26 ; beloved by 
his men, 26 ; on punctuality, 
26, 28 ; and Ben Hagan, 26, 27 ; 
acts as chaplain, 76 ; Commander- 
in-Chief in Bengal, 102 ; and 
the medical officer, 102, 103 ; 
on the duty of cavalry, 113 ; 
the author makes a map for, 
1 40 ; and the author's subse- 
quent promotion, 152 ; and tiger- 
hunting, 181, 189; delicacies for, 
203 ; joins the Carbineers, 286 

Sabhana, a celebrated Shikari, 323, 

33 1 
St. John, Sir Oliver, 134, 137 
Samud Khan, a shikari, 313, 314, 

317-320, 323. 324. 333. 335. 337. 

344, 350 
Sandhurst, the author excused 

going to, 420 
Sangars, 213-217 
Sanghao, 210, 211, 222 



362 



INDEX 



Scene-painter, the author as a, 93 
Scorpion taken for a cobra, a, 227, 

228 
Scouting, 107-112, 159, 340 
Scouting, the author's book on, 340 
Sea-sick, swinging hammocks to 

make officers, 8 
Sensations, enjoyable and otherwise, 

82-84 
Sentry, the confused, and the life- 
buoy, 11, 12 
Sentry, the forgotten, 73 
" Sepoy Generals," 205 
Sepoys much annoyed with the 

artillery, 221 
Serapis, the, 4-10 
Sermon, a native, disturbed by a 

tourist, 307 
Servants, native, 16, 283-285 
Sheep-stealing as an after-dinner 

game, 168-170 
Shere AH, 123, 124 
Sherlock Holmes of the Indian 

police, the, 283 
Sherpur, 204 
Shoes made of cord, 330 
Shooting match, a, 267 
Short cut, a, 151, 152 
Shutkoti, 314 
Sialkote, 346, 351 
Sibi, 126, 149 
Sickness among troops, 90, 91, 

101-103 
Sikh's quoits, deadly weapons, 271 
Simla, 93, 161-166 
Slater, Troop Sergeant-Major, at 

amateur theatricals, 97 
Smell of a dead elephant, the, 247, 

248 
Smell of a dead tiger, the, 187 
Smell of India, the, 13 
Smith-Dorrien, Sir H., and the 

welfare of his men, 182 ; his 

diary of a tiger-shooting trip, 196 
Smoking, the author gives up, 160 
Snakes in India, 226-228 
Snipe cooked in gin, 85, 352 
Snipe-shooting, 84, 85 
Snipers, 212 

Sobraon, the battle of, 302 
Sobriety of the modern soldier, the, 

27, 28, 31 
Sociability in India, 87, 88 
" Society " of half-castes, 172 
Soldier of the old type, a, 142 
Sooth-sayer, an Indian, 284, 285 
South African Constabulary, the, 29 
Spiders, 204 



Sport, 36-69, 84, 85, 90, 91, 106, 
161, 171, 181-204, 224,242, 258- 
263, 278-282, 3I3-3I5. 326, 324- 

344 
Srmagar, 294, 299-302, 337, 345- 

347 
Stephenson, Robert, the author's 

godfather, 83 
Stewart, Sir Donald, 124 
Strategy and its Teaching, 333 
Strategy of a panther, the, 240-242 
Subalterns' attitude when there is 

a chance of war, 210 
Suez, 8-10 

Surgeons, regimental, 103-105 
Swat Valley, the, 145 
Swimming horses, 78-80, 108 
Swordsmanship, Indian, 269-272 
Sydenham, Lord, 352 

Tactics, Dr. Haig-Brown gives a 

lesson in, 1-3 
Takt-i-Suleiman, 300, 301 
Talbot, Sir Adalbert, the British 

Resident in Kashmir, 301, 307 
Tawi suspension bridge, 350 
Tehsildar, a, 347 
Telescopes, rival, 10 
Temperance in the army, 27, 28, 31 
Temple, an Indian, and a Methodist 

chapel, 174, 177, 178 
Theatricals, Army, 92-100, 132 
The four C's of soldiering, 111 
Tiger, a most confiding, 200 
Tigers, 41-43, 181-204, 247 
Tomkins, Tommy, his curious haste, 

155 

" Tommy," see Dimond, Major 

Tom-toms, 277 

Tongas, 290 

Toti, 193 

Tragedy at sea, a, 9 

Umballa, 209 

Umbrellas, curious native, 177 
Unlucky day, an, 73, 74 
Uri, 292 

Vanity overcome by heat, 13 
Vernag, 345, 346 
Victoria, Queen, 123 
Village feuds, 207 

War Correspondents, the author 
and a friend disguise themselves 
as, 165, 166 

Watson, Lieut. John, a good sports- 
man, 31, 32, 34 



INDEX 



Watson, Robert, 34 

White, Sir George, his unconven- 

tionality, 163-165 
Wife, the desirability of one who 

can sketch, 310, 317 
Wife, the price of a, 349 
Wilkinson, General, 134, 137 
Wilson, Lieut., 16 
Wing-bones of a tiger, 197 
"Wolf Cubs," 118 



363 



Wolseley, Lord, 137, 138 
Wood, Sir Evelyn, 82 
Woolar, Lake, 297 
Wunhi and his tea-house, 88, I 

Yakub Khan, 124 

Zaludban, the devil, 301, 302 
Ziarat, a, 336, 338 
Zulus, 191, 192 



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